Not Just Trade, Historic UK-India Deal Paves Way For Cooperation In Defence & Clean Energy

Last Updated:July 24, 2025, 10:34 IST

Keir Starmer and PM Narendra Modi will unveil the UK-India Vision 2035 for a modern, reinvigorated partnership over the next decade in a time of rapid global change

The prime ministers will also commit to further strengthening national security by harnessing frontier technologies and shaping the technologies of tomorrow. (PTI)

Prime Minister Keir Starmer will host his Indian counterpart, PM Narendra Modi, in the United Kingdom on Thursday to sign the landmark UK-India trade deal that will boost bilateral trade by 25.5 billion pounds every year apart from unlocking a myriad of jobs and boosting growth across both economies.

The trade deal is both India’s most comprehensive deal ever, and the UK’s most economically significant bilateral trade deal since leaving the EU. It significantly improves market access for businesses in both countries, leading to cheaper products and services for consumers.

Apart from the deal, the two leaders will unveil their vision— The UK-India Vision 2035—for a modern, reinvigorated partnership over the next decade in a time of rapid global change.

The UK and India’s ambitious new vision for 2035 will go beyond trade, with reinvigorated mutual commitment to drive prosperity and innovation, deepen defence cooperation through a new Defence Industrial roadmap, tackle climate change, and nurture educational connections.

Marking exactly one year since the countries signed the landmark UK-India Technology Security Initiative, the prime ministers will also commit to further strengthening national security by harnessing frontier technologies and shaping the technologies of tomorrow.

“Our landmark trade deal with India is a major win for Britain. It will create thousands of British jobs across the UK, unlock new opportunities for businesses and drive growth in every corner of the country, delivering on our Plan for Change," Starmer said ahead of the signing.

“We’re putting more money in the pockets of hardworking Brits and helping families with the cost of living, and we’re determined to go further and faster to grow the economy and raise living standards across the UK," he added.

UK’s Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “India is one of the fastest growing global economies in the world and an emerging economic superpower of the 21st century. The historic trade deal we have signed is the most comprehensive deal India has ever agreed—putting the UK in the best position to partner with India over the next decade, promising to unlock thousands of jobs and boost growth across both economies.

“The nearly £6 billion in new investment and export wins announced are a sign of things to come, as future collaboration expands into advanced technologies, critical minerals, green finance, and beyond."

Courtesy the trade deal, Indian consumers will benefit from improved access to the best British products—from soft drinks and cosmetics to cars and medical devices—as average tariffs will drop from 15 per cent to 3 per cent. The UK already imports £11 billion in goods from India but liberalised tariffs on Indian goods will make it easier and cheaper for British consumers and businesses to buy Indian products and boost Indian businesses’ exports to the UK.

Also, the UK’s clean energy industry will have brand new, unprecedented access to India’s vast procurement market as the country makes the switch to renewable energy and continues to see growing energy demand.

For financial and professional business services, locked-in access will offer certainty to expand in India’s growing market and measures such as binding India’s foreign investment cap for the insurance sector, ensuring UK financial services companies are treated on an equal footing with domestic suppliers.

Twenty-six British companies have announced new business in India. Airbus & Rolls-Royce will soon begin delivering Airbus aircraft, with over half powered by Rolls-Royce engines, to major Indian airlines as part of around £5 million worth of contracts recently agreed.

As part of the reinvigorated partnership, the UK and India have also agreed to strengthen cooperation in tackling corruption, serious fraud, organised crime, and irregular migration through enhanced intelligence sharing and operational collaboration.

United Kingdom (UK)

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