The India-UK free trade agreement will deepen ties far beyond trade and technology, creating new opportunities for businesses and people in both countries, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Thursday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced July 15 as the date for the pact’s entry into force.Addressing the media on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Evian, Misri described trade, technology and regional and international security as the key pillars of discussions between the two leaders.“The India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, which was signed last year in the presence of the two Prime Ministers in the UK, will enter into force from July 15. So, a major development so far as bilateral relations with a major trading partner are concerned,” Misri said.The agreement is expected to significantly increase annual bilateral trade from the current level of about £48 billion and strengthen the broader India-UK partnership.“Now that a date for entry into force has been announced, I am sure that businesses on both sides have been gearing up for some time to get into this,” he told PTI.“The UK is one of our largest trading partners, an important technology partner. And this agreement is about more than just trade and technology. It speaks to mobility between the two countries as well. And I think it will open very important doors for people in both countries,” he said.Misri said businesses in both countries had been “quite eager” for the agreement to come into force so they could move ahead with expansion and growth plans.He also highlighted progress in negotiations for an India-European Union free trade agreement during Prime Minister Modi’s meetings with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa.The two sides had concluded negotiations earlier this year in New Delhi and are targeting the signing of the agreement before the end of 2026.“This is something that came up in their meeting in Evian on the sidelines of the G7 meetings, and they once again reaffirmed their desire and instructed the respective teams to do whatever was necessary to make this signing happen before the end of the year,” Misri told reporters.Prime Minister Modi concluded his France visit on Thursday evening with an address to the Indian community in Paris.Reflecting on India-France ties, Misri described the relationship as one of the strongest bilateral partnerships globally, anchored in cooperation across defence, nuclear energy and space.“It is a relationship that is present in some of the most important areas of our national endeavour… defence area, the nuclear area and the space area. These are all areas in which there is a history of very close and fruitful collaboration between the two countries, and are also areas where there is active collaboration and discussions ongoing as we speak.“Beyond that, I think there is a lot of alignment in I won’t say every single view, but a lot of our views on the global scale. Certainly, in multilateral organisations and on a lot of regional issues, India and France have very, very similar approaches. And, finally, I would say France is a resident power in the Indo-Pacific, and that creates another very rich vein of possibilities for India and France to cooperate with each other.“French President Emmanuel Macron also bid farewell to Modi with a message in Hindi on social media addressed to his “dear friend Narendra” at the conclusion of the Prime Minister’s state visit.
