Stressing the need to ‘turbo-charge’ India-United Kingdom trade ties, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Wednesday expressed his desire to have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with New Delhi for removal of trade barriers.
Speaking at the ‘Raisina Dialogue’, Johnson said that free trade has proved to be the single greatest engine of human progress, and free trade and economic penetration are mutually beneficial. He suggested India and Pakistan to break down the barriers of mistrust and make the best of economic opportunities.
He also asked professionals of both countries to ‘step up to the plate’. “Break barriers, create jobs, let’s work together,” Johnson said as he recalled British Prime Minister Theresa May’s visit to India in November when the two countries signed agreements pertaining to ease of doing business.
Johnson also held meetings with MoS for External Affairs MJ Akbar and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, and called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
After the meeting, a PMO statement said, “Modi appreciated the progress achieved in strengthening the bilateral partnership in various sectors, especially Science and Technology, Finance, and Defence and Security.”
“It’s a tremendous pleasure to be back in India, a wonderful, beautiful and thriving country. As two modern, diverse democracies, the UK and India are natural partners and we are committed to working together to promote our people’s prosperity, improve global security and tackle the challenges that both our countries face today,” Johnson said.
He maintained trade relationship between two countries is worth £16bn. Indian companies have already created more than 1,00,000 jobs in the UK and sent 160,000 of the brightest and best students to our world class universities over the last 10 years. “I have no doubt that the UK and India share an exciting future together on the world stage,” he said.
The UK is among India’s major trading partners and during 2014-15, it ranked the 18th in the list of India’s top 25 trading partners.