Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Chequers near Aylesbury, England, Thursday, July 24(AP)Starmer and Modi met to talk up their vision of open trade, though neither mentioned President Donald Trump’s tariffs directly. But the contrast was obvious. While Trump’s been pushing his zero-sum approach to trade talks, Modi told a fintech conference Thursday that India and the UK had shown the world how trade could work as a win-win.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to Mumbai this week with a splash. 5,700 billboards and posters went up around the city celebrating the trade deal they signed back in July. Starmer showed up with 126 business executives, university bosses, and company reps in tow. He joked about needing a bigger plane to fit everyone.
Starmer called the expanded relationship with India “a huge win” for both countries as mentioned in Bloomberg report. Before leaving Mumbai, he told reporters that in a world where trade and the economy are more uncertain now, it matters that two major democracies like the UK and India signed this agreement. It provides stability and certainty, he said, and that’s what creates opportunities.
Both leaders need all the stability they can get right now. Trump’s been slapping tariffs on their exports and shaking up security arrangements in their regions. Modi’s been working on his relationships with Russia and China lately while dealing with Trump, who hit Indian goods with 50 percent tariffs and cracked down on skilled worker visas, a real blow to India’s service sector.
Starmer’s tried to stay on Trump’s good side. Britain hosted the American president for a rare second state visit just last month. That’s helped Britain dodge the worst of the tariffs. But the country’s relatively small, open economy is still exposed to protectionist reactions to US policies. Earlier this week, Britain got swept up in EU plans to put 50 percent tariffs on foreign steel, despite Starmer’s efforts to patch things up with Brussels after Brexit.
Britain’s biggest deal since Brexit
The India deal is the biggest one Britain’s signed since leaving the EU in 2020. It could also give New Delhi a blueprint for a deal with Brussels down the line. According to UK analysis, the agreement should increase trade between the countries by 39 percent over the next 15 years and add 0.2 percent to British economic output.
Modi called India and the UK “natural partners” while hosting Starmer at Mumbai’s Raj Bhavan, the governor of Maharashtra’s official residence. Their push for lower trade barriers goes against Trump’s approach as he’s been pursuing deals aimed at tipping bilateral commerce in America’s favor. It shows how some major economies are pushing back against his protectionist vision.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the World Trade Organization’s director-general, told reporters this week that “there is a core in the multilateral trading system that continues to work well.”
Starmer talked up £1.3 billion (about $1.7 billion) in investments by Indian companies during the trip. The UK said those would create 6,900 jobs. Graphcore, the British chip designer that SoftBank Group Corp. owns now, announced plans to spend £1 billion on infrastructure in India over the next decade.
Starmer and Modi pledge deeper UK-India ties on defense, tech and education
During their meeting, Starmer and Modi promised to deepen cooperation across education, technology, critical minerals, and defense. Major UK universities also laid out plans to expand their campuses in India.
On Wednesday, Starmer met with Infosys Ltd. co-founder Nandan Nilekani, the guy widely credited with implementing India’s Unique ID system back in 2009, to get advice on introducing something similar in the UK.
Starmer needs to fix the narrative back home. Slow growth and stubbornly low approval ratings have led members of his own Labour Party to question his leadership. At the fintech conference, they introduced him as a “visionary.”
So the British prime minister was willing to look past some awkward disagreements with Modi. Like the Indian leader’s warm birthday phone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin just before this Mumbai trip started. Starmer said he and Modi discussed India’s purchases of Russian oil, but he highlighted Britain’s push to stop the “shadow fleet” of tankers helping fund Moscow’s war effort.
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