London
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that the UK government remains committed to working as quickly as possible towards a successful conclusion to the ongoing free trade agreement talks with India, as the majority of the substantive negotiation conversations were completed at the end of last month.
At a House of Commons session on the G20 Summit in Indonesia on Thursday, the British Indian leader updated Parliament that he reviewed progress on the FTA during his first meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi since taking charge at 10 Downing Street. He was questioned by Opposition Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer and his own Conservative Party MPs on the timeline for the completion of the agreement with India.
I discussed the free trade agreement with India, and both the Prime Minister of India and I committed our teams to working as quickly as possible to see if we can bring a successful conclusion to the negotiations, said Sunak.
Without negotiating all these things in public, I am pleased that the majority of the substantive negotiation conversations were concluded by the end of October. We will now work at pace with the Indian teams to try to resolve the issues and come to a mutually satisfactory conclusion, he said.
More broadly, he reiterated the UK government’s stance since the Diwali deadline for the FTA was missed, that he would not sacrifice quality for speed because it is important to take the time to get trade deals right. Sunak was questioned about his other discussions with Modi and whether he raised issues such as India’s stance over the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
