India-UK ties hinge on a Free Trade Agreement

LONDON: India and the UK have had a Strategic Partnership since 2004; but this is yet to realise its full potential. Meanwhile, the ties presently hinge on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). This was supposed to be announced before Diwali, but will now probably happen in 2023.

David Cameron as Britain's Prime Minister between 2010 and 2016 greatly desired enhancing relations with India to a "special relationship" - a term applied by London only to the deep understanding with the United States since the Second World War.

Even before he became head of government, Cameron, as leader of opposition, while visiting India wrote in The Guardian on September 5, 2006: "India has established beyond argument, through its economic and political success, its right to a seat at the top table."

One of his first trips abroad as Prime Minister was to India, wherein he and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh agreed in principle to upgrade the relations; but this was not implemented in practice, mainly because India had different priorities.

When Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, there was renewed expectation on Cameron's part that the economic reforms that the former had promised in his election campaign would be a springboard to fulfilling his vision, especially because the Gujarati Hindu community in the UK wanted closer bonds, too.

Once more, though, hopes were belied, indeed Modi's interactions with Cameron's successor Theresa May turned out to be quite prickly, with the latter unbending on her long-standing demand for deportation to India of illegal Indian over-stayers in Britain.

Also, to Modi's dismay, she pleaded her inability to interfere in matters like the extradition of Vijay Mallya, since these were being adjudicated by courts or tribunals.

However, the devastation caused to both the UK and India by Covid — with both countries' economies plunging to below minus-20 per cent at one stage — triggered their need to boost exports to recharge their respective GDPs. Thus, the Modi-Boris Johnson accord in January to turbo-charge the economic interface to an FTA. (IANS)

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