Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Boris Johnson held a virtual meeting on 5 May 2021. The two leaders unveiled the comprehensive road map 2030 which aimed to enhance bilateral ties between the two countries. The road map focused on 5 key areas of cooperation including trade and prosperity, defence and security, climate action, health care and people-to-people relations.
The UK has sent over 1000 more ventilators to India to help the country in the battle against COVID-19. The UK has also provided India with three large mobile oxygen factories, 200 ventilators and 495 oxygen concentrator devices.
Boris Johson’s Indian visit was called off twice this year. He was scheduled to visit as the chief guest for the republic day celebration. But the visit was postponed due to the COVID-19 restrictions in the UK. He was then scheduled to visit in April. It was again cancelled due to the second wave of the pandemic in India.
The highlight was a major investment deal worth nearly $1.4 billion. It is aimed at creating nearly 6,500 jobs in the UK. British producers can now gain access to India and Indian firms too can enter the UK market. The deal could even act as a precursor to a possible free trade deal. A lot of Indian companies had set their minds to invest in the UK market. It includes the Global Gene Corp, Wipro and Sterlite technology. The list includes India’s Serum Institute. The vaccine maker is planning to invest $332 million.
According to a statement from Johnson’s office, “more than 6,500 new jobs will be created in the UK, thanks to the one billion pounds of new UK-India trade and investment announced by the Prime Minister today.”
In a bid to increase bilateral trade and investment and unlock the possibility for the relationship from the private sectors of both countries, India and UK launched an Enhanced Trade Partnership (ETP) to fix the way for negotiating a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement.
India and the UK will work towards finalizing the pre-negotiation stage for FTA by the end of 2021. This will fix market access problems, increase exports and boost the trade partnership over a comprehensive range of regions. India and Britain would began negotiations ‘in the autumn’, following the announcement of a preliminary ‘Enhanced Trade Partnership’ deal.
Both sides are also likely to unveil an ambitious 10-year roadmap to increase broader ties at the end of the summit.
“A comprehensive roadmap 2030 will be launched during the summit, which will pave the way for further expanding and deepening India-UK cooperation over the next decade across five key areas,” the MEA had said.
As per the roadmap, India and the UK will move towards clearing boundaries to trade through a balanced and favorable market access package under the ETP, comprising healthcare, agriculture, education, healthcare and social security among others.
On the other hand, there will be space for continued cooperation under the Joint Working Group on Trade towards reducing or removing market access barriers faced by Indian businesses in the UK and UK businesses in India.
Both the leaders have discussed the extradition of fugitive businessman Vijay Malaya and Nirav Modi. The other issues on the agenda was the climate change, counter terrorism and cyber space domains.
Narendra Modi also thanked Boris Johnson for the immediate medical assistance supplied by the UK. As the UK was one of the first countries to respond to the medical crisis in India.
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