India-UK Relationship Has Enormous Possibilities: S Jaishankar

The India-UK relationship has enormous possibilities and realising them meaningfully is the task at hand, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday during talks with his British counterpart David Lammy that focused on galvanising the ties including to push for a free trade pact.

Mr Lammy is on a two-day visit to India primarily to reset the overall partnership between the two countries in crucial areas such as trade, defence and security, clean energy, new technologies, digital domain and mobility of people.

The British foreign secretary called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi who said India remains committed to elevating its ties with the UK and welcomes the desire to conclude a mutually beneficial free trade pact.

Mr Lammy's visit to New Delhi is the first high-level engagement between India and the UK after Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour government came to power on July 5.

"I do believe that our relationship, it is a very important relationship at the enormous possibilities there," Mr Jaishankar said in his opening remarks at the meeting with Mr Lammy.

"And how we explore those possibilities, how do we realise our potential in a more meaningful way, is one of the tasks that I look forward to undertaking with you," he said.

"We are both countries which have a big global presence in different ways. So I think it's also important that India and the UK work together on global issues and in global platforms," Mr Jaishankar said.

As he embarked on the high-profile trip, Mr Lammy described the negotiations for the trade deal as the floor and not the ceiling of the ambitions to unlock shared potential and deliver growth.

"India is the emerging superpower of the 21st century, the largest country in the world with 1.4 billion people and one of the fastest growing economies in the world," Mr Lammy said.

"Our Free Trade Agreement negotiations is the floor not the ceiling of our ambitions to unlock our shared potential and deliver growth, from Bengaluru to Birmingham," he said.

A British government readout said Mr Lammy will push for a "reset" of the UK-India partnership including through reinforcing London's commitment to securing a free trade agreement that will benefit both economies.

It said the foreign secretary will also galvanise support for accelerated action on the climate crisis with India as an "indispensable partner", driving forward the clean energy transition and creating opportunities for British and Indian businesses.

"We have shared interests on the green transition, new technologies, economic security and global security," Mr Lammy was quoted as saying in the readout.

In their talks, Mr Jaishankar and Mr Lammy are learnt to have reviewed the implementation of the India-UK roadmap that seeks to broad-base the ties in a range of areas.

In 2021, India and the UK adopted the 10-year roadmap to expand ties in the key areas of trade and economy, defence and security, climate change and people-to-people connections among others.

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