India, UK redefine relations with trade and tech tie-ups

India and the United Kingdom have spent decades trying to define their postcolonial relationship — part partnership, part rivalry, and often, part courtship. Today, that relationship is being recast amid trade talks, technology cooperation, and geopolitical shifts.

- HT Correspondent

The two sides recently signed a landmark trade agreement and officials in London and New Delhi are sounding a new tone of optimism about what the two countries might do together— especially in a post-American world.

Avinash Paliwal elaborated on the new era in ties between the United Kingdom and India on last week's episode of Grand Tamasha, a weekly podcast on Indian politics and policy co-produced by HT and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Paliwal is a Reader in International Relations at SOAS University of London and the author of two books, My Enemy's Enemy-India in Afghanistan from the Soviet Invasion to the US Withdrawal and India's Near East - A New History. In 2024-25, he was seconded to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office, where he covered 'India and South Asia'.

On the podcast, Paliwal spoke with host Milan Vaishnav about the troubled history between the two powers, the transformation of the relationship in recent years, and their emerging trade and technology links.