Prioritising India-UK ties, FTA in focus under new PM Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer on Friday has paved the way for a fresh chapter in the country's relations with India as the Labour Party takes charge of steering the stalled Free Trade Agreement negotiations that got stalled with the outgoing Rishi Sunak-led administration. If recent high-profile visits by the shadow cabinet members, stepping up as Cabinet members, are anything to go by, the choreography around India being a priority country is likely to see at least some degree of continuity.
However, despite a manifesto commitment to build a «new strategic partnership» and the then shadow foreign secretary and now the Foreign Secretary in Starmer's government, David Lammy promising to be on a flight to India before the end of July if elected, how much of a priority India will be among the various domestic pressures facing a cost-of-living crisis hit Britain remains an unknown factor.
The India-UK FTA talks began in January 2022 but were stalled in the 14th round as both countries stepped into their general election cycles this year. India saw the new government in the first week and on Friday, it was the UK's.
«There is no question in my mind that India will continue to be important for the new Labour government,» said Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
«But what we don't know yet is to what extent and what would be the priority that the Labour government will put across in relation to India; is it going to focus on the Euro-Atlantic theatre or the Indo-Pacific
