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

AVINASH PALIWAL SPOKE ABOUT THE TROUBLED HISTORY BETWEEN INDIA AND UK; AND THEIR EMERGING TRADE AND TECH LINKS

- HT Correspondent

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.

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'.