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

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

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".