PM Modi, Keir Starmer address India-UK CEO Forum in Mumbai

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UK PM Keir Starmer, who is on visit to India, addresses the India-UK CEO Forum in Mumbai on Thursday, talking about market access, bilateral trade and economic cooperation between the two nations with target of doubling trade by 2030 from current $56 billion. “This year has been unprecedented, enhancing the stability of India-UK relations amid the current global volatility. During my visit to the UK in July this year, we signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). I deeply appreciate and congratulate my friend Prime Minister Starmer for his commitment and vision for this historic achievement. This is not just a trade agreement, but a roadmap for shared progress, shared prosperity, and shared people between the world’s two largest economies,” said PM Modi.Further referring to the likely impact of the agreement, he added, “Along with market access, this agreement will strengthen MSMEs in both countries. It will also open new doors of employment for millions of youth.”Then he went on to explain CETA saying, “To ensure that this Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) reaches its full potential, I would like to present four new dimensions to this CETA. These new dimensions of my CETA will perhaps broaden it considerably. ‘C’ stands for Commerce and Economy. ‘E’ stands for Education and People-to-People Relations. ‘T’ stands for Technology and Innovation. ‘A’ stands for Aspiration.“Further talking about the hopes to increase trade PM also said, “Today, our bilateral trade is approximately $56 billion. We have set a target of doubling it by 2030. I am confident that we can achieve this target ahead of time.”

‘Brought together businesses and investors from both sides’: UK PM Keir Starmer

Hailing the ties between the two nations and hoping for improved relations in future, Starmer also addressed the forum. “”We’ve already had a really productive couple of days. We’ve brought together businesses and investors from both sides, from India and the UK, to network, to pitch, to discuss, to share ideas, and that’s what they’ve been doing. I’ve seen it happening all around in the last two days, in corners of rooms, around tables over food or drink, and discussions going on. It’s been an incredible buzz on our side on the delegation,” he said. “We felt this on the plane on the way over. There was incredible energy, and it’s been a real buzz around these meetings. I think it is the continuation of what we started in Chequers. I’ve always seen this as a sort of two-part exercise. We had the FTA itself, we had an excellent meeting in Chequers. It was my privilege to have some of you there and to have the Prime Minister there at Chequers for that historic meeting and then to have this as the second part of that. I see this as a celebration of the partnership between the UK and India and a clear display of our belief in the potential,” he further added. Talking about the overall business potential with India, Starmer said, “We’ve got huge, really important businesses and investors amongst the key businesses, investors when it comes to our relationship with India and iconic businesses. We’ve got medium-sized businesses, smaller businesses, but we’ve also got huge talent and experience across finance, sport, tech and manufacturing. Whilst we’ve been here, we’ve been able to do deals on films. Yesterday I saw the Premier League doing their coaching training, that is going to go out across the whole of India.”“I think all of this shows that this is not a narrow enterprise around just one or two sectors, it’s a much broader ambition than that. So what an incredible foundation we have to build on. We build on a solid foundation because billions already flow in trade and investment between our two countries, supporting thousands of jobs in both of our countries,” also said the UK PM, hailing the UK-India ties.