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Trade deals India seeking new agreements amid 'global uncertainty', says minister

The Guardian

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April 09, 2025

India is seeking to strike more trade deals with other countries at a time of "global uncertainty", its finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, said before talks with the UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves.

- Eleni Courea

Trade deals India seeking new agreements amid 'global uncertainty', says minister

Sitharaman, who serves as the finance and corporate affairs minister in Narendra Modi's government, said she was hopeful the UK and India would finalise a free trade deal "sooner rather than later".

Speaking at the Indian high commission on a visit to London, Sitharaman said global uncertainties were "multiplying by the day", which was "driving many countries to clearly be active on [seeking] bilateral arrangements" that went beyond their old ideological and political ties.

Asked by the Guardian whether Donald Trump's tariffs had created more urgency in the UK-India trade talks, Sitharaman said the negotiations had been going on for "a very long time" and that it was "not as if we are rushing into a UK FTA [free trade agreement] because of what is going on in the US".

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