Prioritising India-UK ties, FTA in focus under new PM Keir Starmer

The landslide majority of new Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday has paved the way for a fresh chapter in the countrys relations with India as the Labour Party takes charge of steering the stalled Free Trade Agreement negotiations that got stalled with the outgoing Rishi Sunakled administrationIf recent highprofile 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 continuityHowever despite a manifesto commitment to build a new strategic partnership and the then shadow foreign secretary and now the Foreign Secretary in Starmers 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 costofliving crisis hit Britain remains an unknown factorThe IndiaUK 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 UKsThere is no question in my mind that India will continue to be important for the new Labour government said Rahul RoyChaudhury Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies IISSBut what we dont 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 EuroAtlantic theatre or the IndoPacific theatre And within the IndoPacific region the other unknown is how important will India be he saidRoyChaudhury said he would like to see the new government appoint a dedicated India Champion to set a firm ambition for its relations with one of the largest economies in the worldLord Karan Bilimoria a crossbench peer who has led many trade delegations to India expressed confidence that Starmer would set the right tone in terms of student visas and end the hostile Conservative rhetoric around immigrationWith Keir Starmer now being in power this is a great opportunity to turbocharge the UKIndia relationship which was very strong under former Tory prime minister David Cameron but since then has not been anywhere near as effective said the founder of Cobra BeerThe Labour government will prioritise India will prioritise completing this Free Trade Agreement FTA will address issues like immigration in a sensible manner and not in a hostile manner the way the Conservative Party did driven by their extreme rightwing he saidManoj Ladwa founder of the UKbased India Global Forum IGF iquest where Lammy last week made his commitment to signing off on an FTA and described it as iquesta floor not a ceiling of the partnership he aspires to described the trade deal as a litmus test of what the future holds for the two countriesThe challenge for Keir Starmer however will be to insulate himself from domestic activist groups who seek to import the politics of the subcontinent and influence Labour foreign policy and the wider national strategic interest to engage positively with the worlds largest democracy he cautionedOther strategic experts pointed to the Labour governments iquestprogressive realismiquest stance on foreign policy as implying a more pragmatic and less ideologically driven approachI think its generally a positive trajectory and in terms of the FTA the strategic case is almost as important if not more important than the economic there are obviously some sticking points but consensus has been reached in most of the chapters noted Chietigj Bajpaee Senior Research Fellow at Chatham House in LondonMeanwhile the prospect of Lammy travelling to India as the new UK Foreign Secretary in the coming weeks is likely to be the first indication of the priority level India is placed under by the incoming governmentThe engagement they shadow cabinet have been having recently has really helped to build up their understanding of India and theyve been incredibly positive about what they want to achieve in India said Kevin McCole managing director of UK India Business Council UKIBC who is on his way to India next week to build momentum around the trade talksWeve had the 2030 Roadmap I think its time that can be refreshed and extended to include a range of other elements and within that trade and investment has got to be there including resuming those FTA negotiations and concluding them swiftly he added