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The long road to India-UK trade deal: ETP in 2021 to FTA in 2025
The UK on Tuesday agreed a free trade agreement with India, its biggest such deal since leaving the European Union, after negotiations relaunched in February following US tariff threats. read more
Britain and India announced Tuesday that they have agreed on a long-stalled free trade agreement that will slash tariffs on Scotch whisky and scores of other products. The deal comes more than three years after negotiations started and stalled under a previous British government.
Britain has sought to bolster trade ties across the world since it left the EU at the start of the decade, a need that strengthened after the United States unleashed tariffs that risk weaker economic growth.
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Following is the chronology of the developments that led to the conclusion of the India-UK free trade agreement.
May 4, 2021: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and (the then) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson launched an 'Enhanced Trade Partnership' (ETP) to unleash the trade potential between the two economies. As part of the ETP, they agreed on a roadmap to negotiate a comprehensive and balanced FTA.
Jan 13, 2022: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal launched the Free Trade Agreement negotiations with the United Kingdom, along with the then UK Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan in New Delhi.
Both parties agreed to start the first round of negotiations on 17-28 January and hold future rounds of negotiations approximately every five weeks.
Jan 2022 - Jan 2025: A total of 14 rounds of negotiations were held between officials of the two countries.
March 2024: Negotiations were paused due to Indian general elections; both sides agreed to resume discussions post-election.
February 2025: Goyal and UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds announced the resumption of negotiations. It was resumed after a gap of over eight months because of elections in Britain.
Apr 28, 2025: Goyal visited London for the FTA talks with his UK counterpart, Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.
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May 2, 2025: Goyal again held discussions with Reynolds.
May 6, 2025: India and the UK announced the conclusion of negotiations for FTA, along with the Double Contribution Convention pact.
'Today we have agreed a landmark deal with India – one of the fastest growing economies in the world, which will grow the economy and deliver for British people and business,' UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement.
His Labour government added it is 'the biggest and most economically significant bilateral trade deal the UK has done since leaving the EU'.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the deal as 'ambitious and mutually' beneficial.
The pact will help 'catalyse trade, investment, growth, job creation, and innovation in both our economies', Modi said in a post on social media platform X.
His office said in a statement the deal will 'unlock new potential for the two nations to jointly develop products and services for global markets'.
It added that Modi had invited Starmer to visit India at an unspecified date.
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Time of India
18 minutes ago
- Time of India
China silent about lifting export curbs on rare earth metals amid growing concerns in India, world
China, which holds the global monopoly over the precious rare earth metals needed for manufacturing of phones, automobiles and missiles, continues to play hardball over lifting export restrictions of the precious metals warding off pressures from a host of countries, including, the US, EU and India. "China's export control measures are consistent with universal practices," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said responding to a question during a media briefing here on Thursday that Japanese automaker Suzuki has suspended production of its main small cars in Japan because of delays due to rare earth restrictions. "Such measures are non-discriminatory and not targeted at any particular country," he said, adding that the question should be directed to competent authorities. This is the second-time this week that Lin deflected a question on the growing global concerns over the restrictions over exports of Chinese rare earth metals. On Tuesday, he evaded a question about reports that executives and representatives of the car industry in Europe, the US and India expressed concern that China's rare earth export controls are creating the risk of shortages that could lead to the stoppages in production soon, saying that the question should be addressed to competent authorities. Reports from Tokyo on Thursday said Suzuki Motor halted production of its Swift model cars in Japan from May 26 due to China's rare earth restrictions. Reports in recent weeks from India too spoke of growing concerns among the automobile manufactures about scarcity about rare earth magnets, which are critical components in electric vehicles (EVs) and even some parts of traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. Also, China's export restrictions of the rare earths specially germanium, a critical mineral that is used in manufacturing of semiconductors, fibre optic cables and solar panels, has sparked concerns in India among the respective industries. Officials of India as well as many other countries say they are engaged with the concerned ministries and departments. Rare earths are a group of metals consisting of 17 elements. Though present in several counties, their extraction is costly and messy causing massive amounts of pollution. According to the International Energy Agency, currently China accounts for 61 per cent of global mined rare earth production, but controls 92 per cent of the global output. China's exports restrictions of rare earths which were imposed in June last year through a decree by Premier Li Qiang reportedly became stricter since US President Donald Trump imposed 146 per cent tariffs on Chinese exports. This week, the European Union (EU) urged China to stop restricting the export of rare earth minerals and magnets, with the bloc's trade chief saying its industries are in an "alarming situation", the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Thursday. The request was made during a meeting between the sides' top commerce officials in Paris on Tuesday. It comes as sectors across Europe raise the alarm about a shortage of rare earths, which are used to manufacture hi-tech goods ranging from electric cars and smartphones to military tanks and aircraft. "I informed my Chinese counterpart about the alarming situation in the European car industry, but I would say industry as such because clearly rare earths and permanent magnets are absolutely essential for industrial production," EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said on Wednesday, briefing reporters a day after his meeting with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao.
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First Post
21 minutes ago
- First Post
How Pakistani military has metastasised like cancer inside society
The public plays along as the military intensifies its anti-India narrative and false propaganda and the Generals prosper at the expense of the economy read more 'Of all the countries I've dealt with, I consider Pakistan to be the most dangerous because of the radicalisation of its society and the availability of nuclear weapons.' —Jim Mattis, former US defence secretary and four-star Marine Corps General, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, 2019 General Mattis, who commanded forces in the Persian Gulf War, Afghanistan War and Iraq War, realised three things: First, the Pakistani society is 'radicalised'. Second, Pakistan's political culture has 'an active self-destructive streak'. Third, US military interactions with Pakistan 'could only be transactional' as its military can't be trusted. The three factors are interwoven and describe the current state of Pakistan's mess. A nation born out of hatred and animosity, ruled directly or indirectly by its military, which sponsors terrorism and has radicalised its society, will keep on sinking into the abyss of self-destruction. Decades of hatred and enmity towards India—especially the dream of occupying J&K—systematically nurtured and propagated by the Pakistani military, have turned into a metastatic cancer which has spread deep inside its society. External affairs minister S Jaishankar rightly compared Pakistan to a cancer that has started affecting its society. 'Pakistan is an exception in our neighbourhood in view of its support for cross-border terrorism. That cancer is now consuming its body politic,' he said at the 19th Nani A Palkhivala Memorial Lecture in Mumbai in January. Military supremacy and hatred for India Hatred for India and the Pakistani military's creation of the mirage of a Hindu nation being an existential threat unite its society. Despite orchestrating four coups, ruling directly and indirectly, meddling in politics, robbing the nation of development, wasting funds and foreign loans on weapons and suppressing dissent and protests, the Pakistani military is respected by the population. The military has cemented its image as the saviour of Pakistan's borders and its people, 'threatened by a Hindu India' since its independence. In his book Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military, Husain Haqqani, a Pakistani journalist and former ambassador to the US, writes: 'Very soon after independence, 'Islamic Pakistan' was defining itself through the prism of resistance to 'Hindu India'.' The belief that India 'represented an existential threat to Pakistan led to maintaining a large military, which in turn helped the military assert its dominance in the life of the country'. Within weeks of independence, Haqqani writes, 'Editorials in the Muslim League newspaper, Dawn, called for 'guns rather than butter', urging a bigger and better-equipped army to defend 'the sacred soil' of Pakistan.' The national security apparatus was accorded a special status as protecting nationhood by military means 'took priority over all else'. 'It also meant that political ideas and actions that could be interpreted as diluting Pakistani nationhood were subversive. Demanding ethnic rights or provincial autonomy, seeking friendly ties with India, and advocating a secular Constitution fell under that category of subversion.' Haqqani explains how the military gained prominence. 'The Kashmir dispute as well as the ideological project fuelled rivalry with India, which in turn increased the new country's need for a strong military. The military and the bureaucracy, therefore, became even more crucial players in Pakistan's life than they would have been had the circumstances of the country's birth been different.' Historian Ayesha Jalal, in her book The State of Martial Rule, explains how internal threats to the government were conflated with a defence against India. Thus, the difference between internal and external threats was blurred to the military's advantage. 'So in Pakistan's case, defence against India was in part a defence against internal threats to central authority. This is why a preoccupation with affording the defence establishment—not unusual for a newly created state— assumed obsessive dimensions in the first few years of Pakistan's existence,' she writes. The Pakistani leadership found it 'convenient to perceive all internal political opposition as a threat to the security of the state'. Gradually, the Pakistani society also started perceiving India as a threat and the military as the protector from this imaginary danger. A February Gallup & Gilani Pakistan opinion poll found that only 41 per cent of Pakistanis think that Pakistan should maintain any relationship with India at any level before the Kashmir issue is resolved—35 per cent are against it. Military cons, coerces Pakistanis at the same time Operation Sindoor exposed Pakistani society's fickle-mindedness, the military's hero-worshipping and how the Generals con and coerce the public at the same time. The Pakistani military changed the Black Day in May 2023 to the Day of Righteous Battle in the same month this year in merely four days. The tactics were the same. Pakistani and local terrorists attack J&K, Indian retaliation portrayed as an attack on Pakistan's sovereignty and the military retaliates as the nation's saviour. The scene in Pakistan changed from the massive protests against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan's arrest, which engulfed major cities, public and private properties and military installations, to celebration and triumph around two years later. In May 2023, the public challenged the military's dominance and power. In May 2025, the public celebrated the military's fake propaganda of supremacy and winning against India as the Generals took advantage of Operation Sindoor and the decades-old Kashmir issue to boost their decreasing popularity. A May 7 Gallup Pakistan survey found 77 per cent of Pakistanis rejecting India's allegation that Pakistan was behind the Pahalgam attack with 55 per cent believing that India's intelligence or government may have orchestrated it. Despite India's no-first-use nuclear policy, 45 per cent of Pakistanis fear that India might launch a first nuclear strike. For Pakistanis, the country's foreign policy with India takes precedence over deep-rooted corruption, serious economic problems and the incapability of successive governments with 64 per cent of the public satisfied with the political leadership's unified stance on tensions with India. Sixty-five per cent express overall satisfaction with the Shehbaz Sharif government's India foreign policy. Another Gallup Pakistan survey, conducted on May 21, found how the military's lies, disinformation and fake propaganda had boosted its image with 96 per cent of the public believing that India was defeated and 97 per cent rating the performance of its armed forces as good or very good. An overwhelming 87 per cent held India responsible for initiating the conflict. Public opinion of the Army improved to 93 per cent compared to 73 per cent of the civilian government. Sharif's party, PML-N, received the highest positive performance rating (65 per cent), followed by PTI (60 per cent) and Pakistan Peoples Party (58 per cent). Around 30 per cent opposed normalisation of ties with India. Not even 50 per cent supported normalising relations with India with trade cooperation receiving the highest support (49 per cent), followed closely by sports (48 per cent), education (44 per cent) and cultural exchanges (40 per cent). Two incidents show how the military cons Pakistanis, who are willing to be conned, in the name of the non-existent Indian threat and increases its iron grip at the same time. First, the government revoked the ban on X, imposed in February 2024, a few hours after India targeted terrorist bases in Pakistan and PoK on May 7. The social media platform was banned on February 17, 2024, without notification on the pretext of threats to national security and Elon Musk's company's refusal to accede to requests and comply with the Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards) Rules 2021. The actual reason for the ban was the accounts of candidates and parties, especially PTI and the National Democratic Movement, posting about election irregularities. The government admitted after one month that X was banned. Internet and cybersecurity watchdog NetBlocks said that X was banned after 'it was used to draw attention to instances of alleged election fraud'. According to Access Now, a nonprofit that focuses on digital civil rights and reports on global Internet censorship, Pakistan imposed 21 shutdowns in 2024. Once the ban on X was revoked, a deluge of disinformation, like Pakistan shooting down a Su-30MKI and a MiG-29, from Pakistani handles flooded the platform. Pakistanis were part of the disinformation campaign without realising that the ban was removed to whip up anti-India feelings and restore the military's image. The military managed to reunite the nation with hatred against India and false claims of victory as Pakistanis forgot how their economic woes increased, ethnic and political dissent was crushed, dissenters went missing and all these years. Even Khan, who had held Army chief General Syed Asim Munir responsible for his arrest, tweeted: 'The recent escalation between Pakistan and India has once again proven that Pakistanis are a brave, proud, and dignified nation.' Second, as Pakistanis celebrated the military's lies, the spineless Supreme Court, in a 5-2 verdict by the Constitutional Bench, allowed 105 civilians accused in the May 9, 2023, protests to be tried in military courts. The civilians had been convicted under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA), 1952, and the Official Secrets Act, 1923, for espionage, 'interfering with officers of the police or members of the armed forces' and unauthorised use of uniforms. The apex court overturned an earlier ruling against military trials of civilians. Section 2 of PAA permits trials of civilians before military courts when they are accused of 'seducing or attempting to seduce any person subject to this Act from his duty or allegiance to government' or having committed 'in relation to any work of defence…in relation to the military of Pakistan'. Section 59(4) provides for the trial of such civilians under the PAA. In a May report by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), 'Military Justice in Pakistan: A Glaring Surrender of Human Rights', found that trials of the 105 civilians violated Pakistan's legal obligations under international human rights. 'The ICJ recalls that the use of military courts to try civilians usurps the functions of the ordinary courts and is inconsistent with the principle of independence of the judiciary.' According to Principle 5 of the UN Human Rights Sub-Commission, 'military courts should, in principle, have no jurisdiction to try civilians… The jurisdiction of military courts should be limited to offences of a strictly military nature committed by military personnel. Military courts may try persons treated as military personnel for infractions strictly related to their military status'. Pakistani military's grip on economy The state of Pakistan's economy is as open as the military and the political leadership's sponsorship of terrorism. Since joining the IMF in 1950, Pakistan has been bailed out more than 20 times by the Fund to address fiscal deficits, balance of payments crises and structural reforms. One of the arrangements under which the IMF has bailed out Pakistan is the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), a longer-term arrangement involving reforms to address the economy's structural weaknesses. On May 9, a day before the ceasefire, the IMF granted $1 billion to Pakistan as part of its $7-billion EFF and another $1.3 billion under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility. The amount was a carrot dangled by the US-led IMF before Pakistan to end hostilities, and was vociferously opposed by India. Pakistan's economy was in negative territory twice in the last five years—2020, -0.9 per cent; 2021, 5.8 per cent; 2022, 6.2 per cent; 2023, -0.2 per cent; and 2024, 2.5 per cent In April, the IMF revised Pakistan's GDP growth in 2025 downward to 2.6 per cent from 3 per cent in January and 3.6 per cent in 2026 from 4 per cent citing the 29 per cent tariffs imposed by the Donald Trump administration. Inflation has been a constant problem with higher prices of fruits, vegetables, flour, rice, meat and chicken. According to IMF data, inflation has been in double digits in the last five years except once—2020 (10.7 per cent), 2021 (8.2 per cent), 2022 (12.2 per cent), 2023 (29.2 per cent) and 2024 (23.4 per cent). Per IMF projections, inflation in 2025 will be 5.1 per cent and 7.7 per cent in 2026. The unemployment rate in the last five years was 6.6 per cent in 2020, 6.3 per cent in 2021, 6.2 per cent in 2022, 8.5 per cent in 2023 and 8.3 per cent in 20204. According to the IMF, the unemployment rate in 2025 is projected at 8 per cent and in 2026 at 7.5 per cent. Pakistan's forex reserves are abysmally low compared to India's. In December 2020, it was $20.5 million; December 2021, $23.9 million; December 2022, $10.8 million; December 2023, $12.7 million; and December 2024, $15.9 million. Forex reserves in May were $16.6 million, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan. The Pakistani currency has been severely hit by economic mismanagement, ineffective fiscal policies, a massive trade deficit, the lack of structural reforms and investment, low growth rates, high inflation, rising unemployment and political instability. The PKR tanked to an all-time low of 307.10 against the dollar in the first week of September 2023. The currency has been trading above 280. According to a Fitch Ratings projection in April, Pakistan will gradually devalue its currency to avoid likely pressure on the current account. Bloomberg, quoting Krisjanis Krustins, director, Asia Pacific Sovereign Ratings, Fitch, reported, 'The ratings company sees the rupee falling to 285 against the dollar by the end of June and weakening further to 295 by the end of the next fiscal year in 2026.' Pakistan's poverty rate is estimated at 42.4 per cent in the 2025 fiscal year, higher than 40.5 per cent in 2024, according to the World Bank. With a two per cent annual population growth, 1.9 million more people will fall into poverty this year. Even in 2026 and 2027, the rate will be around 40 per cent and 40.8 per cent, respectively. Amid the economic disaster and financial ruin with a national debt of $130 billion, $7.64 billion was allocated for defence in the 2024-25 defence budget. The Generals have been thriving for decades at the expense of Pakistanis by controlling industry, agriculture and the private sector. Under the Defence Housing Authority, the Army owns 12 per cent of the country's land at nominal rates, including urban and agricultural. The military has a massive stake in the government's industrial and commercial policies due to its immense influence on industry, commerce and business. In her book Military Inc. – Inside Pakistan's Military Economy, Pakistani political scientist Ayesha Siddiqa terms the military's 'internal economy' Milbus, military capital used for the personal benefit of its personnel, especially officers. 'Pakistan's military runs a huge commercial empire with an estimated value of billions of dollars.' This capital is 'neither recorded nor a part of the defence budget. Its most significant component is entrepreneurial activities that are not subject to state accountability procedures'. The military is the sole driver of Milbus— and is 'an example of the type of Milbus that intensifies military interest in remaining in power or direct/indirect control of governance'. According to her, Milbus involves: the varied business ventures of four welfare foundations (small businesses such as farms, schools and private security firms and corporate enterprises such as commercial banks and insurance companies, radio and television channels and manufacturing plants) direct institutional military involvement in enterprises such as toll collecting, shopping centres and petrol stations and benefits given to retired personnel, such as state land or business openings. Siddiqa explains how Milbus hurts Pakistan economically, politically and socially. The system 'nurtures' the military's political ambitions by creating deep-rooted vested interests in military dominance. 'The military has nourished the religious right to consolidate military control over the State and society.' Socially, it 'increases inter-ethnic tensions (due to skewed military recruitment policies), reduces the acceptability of the military as an arbiter among political interests and increases the alienation of the underprivileged'. Moreover, building and sustaining the military's influence in power politics come at a cost. 'Evidence shows that military businesses are not run more efficiently than others. Some of the military's larger businesses and subsidiaries have required financial bailout from the government.' Meanwhile, the Army continues with its anti-India narrative despite losing four wars to India—and the public plays along. Anti-India rhetoric, sponsorship of terrorism in J&K and the portrayal of India as an existential threat to Pakistan sustain the military while development has come to a standstill. According to Noam Chomsky, professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the father of modern linguistics, 'Pakistan just cannot survive' if it continues the confrontation with India. In an interview with the Dawn in May 2013, he said, 'Pakistan will never be able to match the Indian militarily and the effort to do so is taking an immense toll on society.' The writer is a freelance journalist with more than two decades of experience and comments primarily on foreign affairs. He tweets as @FightTheBigots. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
India Today
21 minutes ago
- India Today
Why Pakistan monitoring Taliban in UNSC is a rogue on police duty
Pakistan as chair of the UNSC's 1988 Taliban Sanctions Committee for 2025 may appear like a routine act in international diplomacy, but it's seemingly a deeply troubling irony. It will hold this position till December 31, 2025, while also serving as one of the vice-chairs of the 15-member UNSC's Counter-Terrorism accused of harbouring and aiding the Taliban, from its formation in 1994 to its resurgence in 2021, Pakistan is now tasked with overseeing punitive measures against it. Yet, there's a parallel truth to it — the Taliban, the very force Pakistan once nurtured, now appears increasingly estranged from it. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an offshoot of the outfit, has unleashed waves of deadly violence across the country over the years. In 2024, nearly 15,000 Taliban fighters reportedly mobilised towards the Durand Line after Pakistani airstrikes targeted TTP positions inside signs of this estrangement are evident diplomatically too. The Taliban government in Afghanistan recently condemned the Pahalgam terror attack in India, stating that "such acts threaten regional security". This statement came during External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's first outreach to the "acting Afghan foreign minister", Amir Khan Muttaqi, on May 15, though India has not officially recognised the Taliban ARE SOME CONCERNS?Now, with Pakistan as the chair of the committee responsible for overseeing sanctions, including asset freezes, travel bans, and arms embargoes against individuals and entities associated with the Taliban that threaten peace and security in Afghanistan and the region, the concerns are PLATFORM TO PAK: Firstly, though Pakistan's appointment as the chair is as per UN norms, it gives the seemingly rogue nation a legitimate platform and undermines the credibility of the UN to combat terrorism. Moreover, Islamabad can use this position to deflect or downplay India's longstanding allegations of its support for terrorism and whitewash its case on an international diplomatic has consistently raised concerns about Pakistan hosting the world's largest number of UN-proscribed terrorists and terror entities. One of the biggest examples of this was al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was found hiding in Abbottabad, about 1.5 kilometres from the Pakistani military's compounds, before being killed in a 2011 US is also the most persistently flagged country on the Financial Action Task Force List (FATF) grey list, as many as three times. India will reportedly send a dossier to the FATF before its plenary meeting in June to push for the re-inclusion of Pakistan in its grey list. The government will also reportedly oppose further World Bank funding to DISRUPT INDIA-TALIBAN DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS: Secondly, it is important to note that the Taliban administration and India have been intensifying ties since the outfit again came to power in Kabul on August 16, Pakistan chairing the sanctions committee against the Taliban, it may use the position to closely monitor or disrupt these diplomatic efforts, especially if it believes India's engagement with the Afghanistan government threatens Islamabad, mainly in the wake of the conflict on the Durand Line, and the Balochistan 2021, when the Baloch insurgency gained renewed momentum, Islamabad has repeatedly accused New Delhi of fomenting unrest in the it has also been alleged that Afghanistan provides a safe haven for Baloch insurgents, particularly in the border provinces of Nimroz and Kandahar. It is important to note that many Baloch tribes have straddled the Afghanistan-Pakistan border for centuries and share deep cultural and linguistic ties with communities in southern parallel dynamics — India's growing regional influence and the ethnic affinity between Balochs and Afghans — have long unsettled decisions in the UNSC committees are made by consensus, chairs have significant procedural influence, like meeting agendas and the framing of development has also triggered a political storm in India, with the Opposition Congress saying that Pakistan getting such positions in the UN shows that India's foreign policy has collapsed. The Congress urged that the Centre must take resolute diplomatic actions to de-hyphenate India and Pakistan on the global the Indian government has not officially responded, it remains to be seen how New Delhi's diplomatic machinery will counter Pakistan's use of international InMust Watch
