Lammy to visit India to discuss trade pact

Foreign secretary David Lammy is expected to visit India on Tuesday (23), the first high-profile visit under the newly-elected Labour government in Britain, to discuss the India-UK free trade agreement.

A report in ‘The Daily Telegraph' quotes a New Delhi source to claim the Indian side would seek clarity on whether the Labour government intends to pick things up from where they were left off or start afresh in some way.

The free trade agreement (FTA) talks began in January 2022, under the then Conservative government, with a target to significantly boost the £38.1 billion a year bilateral trading partnership but hit a block in the fourteenth round of negotiations in March to make way for general elections in both countries.

“Our stance on visas for professionals remains unchanged. We are expecting a positive outcome under the Labour government,” the source added.

During his last major intervention on India-UK relations just days before Labour's landslide electoral victory earlier this month, Lammy told India Global Forum (IGF) in London that he intends to get the deal done as soon as possible.

"My message to [Finance] Minister [Nirmala] Sitharaman and [Trade] Minister [Piyush] Goyal is that Labour is ready to go. Let's finally get our free trade deal done and move on,” he said, lamenting former prime minister Boris Johnson's missed Diwali 2022 deadline.

“With Labour, the days of Boris Johnson reciting that old verse from Rudyard Kipling in Asia are over. If I recite a poem in India, it will be Tagore... because with a superpower like India, the areas of cooperation and the areas for learning are limitless,” he said.

On visas, which have been touted in the UK media as a major sticking point in the talks, High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami clarified at the same summit that it is not the “priority” for India.

He explained: “What we're trying to do with this free trade agreement is to increase the depth or the extent of ambition, including in goods and services, that we'd like to offer to the UK."

“Visas are not the first priority for us in an FTA. We are not looking at the FTA as a means to bring people to the UK, that is not the objective," he said.

The prime minister Keir Starmer-led Labour Party manifesto pledged to seek a “new strategic partnership with India, including a free trade agreement, as well as deepening cooperation in areas like security, education, technology and climate change”.

Lammy's expected visit to India next week, on his way to the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting at Vientiane in Lao People's Democratic Republic, is expected to set the tone for how this pledge is to be realised. (PTI)