Exterior affairs minister S Jaishankar requested visiting British minister Lord Tariq Ahmad to make sure safety of India’s diplomatic missions within the UK and stop misuse of democratic freedoms. This got here towards the backdrop of the vandalisation of the Indian Excessive Fee in London in March by pro-Khalistan supporters.
“Met with UK MOS Lord Tariq Ahmad right this moment in New Delhi… Underlined the duty to make sure safety of our diplomatic missions and stop misuse of democratic freedoms,” Jaishankar tweeted.
Jaishankar mentioned that he additionally mentioned a broad vary of points starting from the Free Commerce Settlement and South Asia to Indo-Pacific and G20 with the visiting minister. India and the UK have had 9 rounds of negotiations of the free commerce settlement (FTA) since January final 12 months aiming in direction of a complete pact that’s anticipated to considerably improve the bilateral buying and selling relationship which was value an estimated GBP 34 billion in 2022.
Lately, Britain’s Chief Negotiator for the FTA – Harjinder Kang – was appointed the nation’s new Commerce Commissioner to South Asia and Deputy Excessive Commissioner for Western India, primarily based in Mumbai.
In line with UK authorities statistics, India was the UK’s twelfth largest buying and selling associate within the 4 quarters to the top of Q3 2022, accounting for two.1 per cent of whole UK commerce.