Jaishankar hosts Cleverly, first India-UK engagement after Sunak took over as British PM

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly met in New Delhi on Saturday and discussed ways to step up bilateral trade and investment partnership.

Jaishankar played host to Cleverly in what was the first high-level in-person engagement between India and the United Kingdom after Rishi Sunak took over as the United Kingdom’s first Hindu Prime Minister on October 25 last. The External Affairs Minister and his counterpart in the British Government, however, had met in New York last month and spoken to each other over phone twice this month – on October 14 and 25.

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“Delighted to welcome UK Foreign Secretary @JamesCleverly on his first India visit; shortly after our meeting in New York last month,” Jaishankar tweeted after his meeting with Cleverly. “Noted the progress in our Roadmap 2030. Also discussed the Ukraine conflict and the Indo-Pacific.”

The two sides had agreed upon the Roadmap 2030 during a virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his then counterpart Boris Johnson in May 2021.

The Jaishankar-Cleverly meeting took place amid efforts by both sides to end the impasse in the negotiations for the proposed India-UK trade agreement. Two days after Sunak moved to 10 Downing Street in London, Modi called him and the two leaders agreed on the need for early signing of the proposed trade agreement.

The India-UK Free Trade Agreement is a key milestone in the Roadmap 2030.

Modi and Sunak are also likely to hold a bilateral meeting on the sideline of the G20 summit in Bali in Indonesia on November 15 and 16.

“We discussed collaboration on trade, investment, defence and security to improve the lives and livelihoods of our citizens,” Cleverly tweeted after his meeting with Jaishankar in New Delhi. He said that his meeting with Jaishankar on Saturday was “positive and productive”.

Modi and Johnson had on April 22 this year set Diwali (October 24) as the deadline for concluding the negotiations for the proposed India-UK trade agreement.

The two sides completed talks on 16 of the 26 proposed chapters of the agreement. The negotiators however missed the October 24 deadline, primarily due to disagreement on issues like tariff on whiskey imported from the UK to India, London’s demand to New Delhi for opening up the market in India for professional, financial and legal services of the UK and New Delhi’s demand for London to adopt a more liberalized business visa regime.

The negotiations for the trade deal had come under a shadow after Sunak’s predecessor Liz Truss’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman had expressed “concerns” and “reservation” over the possibility of the proposed agreement opening up doors for increased immigration from India to the UK. New Delhi had conveyed to London its displeasure over her remarks. Braverman had stepped down as the Home Secretary just a few days before Truss had announced her resignation. Sunak, however, brought her back as his Home Secretary on Tuesday.

Cleverly was on his maiden tour to India after taking over as the British Home Secretary. He took part in a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council’s counter-terrorism committee in Mumbai and New Delhi on Friday and Saturday.