- Monday, March 10, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
India’s diplomatic establishment has tried to assure that the future of the country’s free trade agreement (FTA) with the UK was secure by saying that both New Delhi and London are keen to wrap up the pact at the earliest.
The country’s ministry of external affairs (MEA) said this after British home secretary Suella Braverman, who is of Indian-origin, said that she would not back the agreement if it saw increased immigration to the UK.
“There is interest on both sides to conclude the FTA at the earliest. I understand that intensive discussions are underway towards this and continuing,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Friday (7).
Asked about a deadline, Bagchi said, “I think Diwali was set as a goal but that’s a goal.”
Bagchi, however, refused to respond specifically to Braverman’s remarks after she expressed doubts over the proposed FTA while linking the issue to migration and saying that Indians were the “largest group of people who overstay” visas in the UK.
“All negotiations are part of give and take…it needs to be a win-win for both sides…I wouldn’t like to get into what people say perhaps for domestic perspectives,” he said.
The 42-year-old Braverman hinted during a recent interview to the British weekly magazine ‘The Spectator’ that she would not give cabinet backing to a trade deal that offers India greater concessions in terms of visas.
She also expressed concerns on what she termed “an open borders migration policy with India”.
“I have concerns about having an open borders migration policy with India because I don’t think that’s what people voted for with Brexit,” Braverman told the magazine. “We even reached an agreement with the Indian government last year to encourage and facilitate better cooperation in this regard. It has not necessarily worked very well,” she said.
The home secretary was referring to the Migration and Mobility Partnership (MMP) that was inked by her predecessor Priti Patel, and India’s external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in May 2021.
Responding to Braverman’s claim that migration and Mobility Partnership (MMP) had not ‘worked very well’, the Indian high commission in London said in a statement on Thursday (6) that action has been initiated on all raised cases.
“As part of our wider discussions under Migration and Mobility, the Government…is committed to working with the government of the UK to facilitate the return of Indian citizens who have overstayed their visa period here in the UK,” the statement said.
“As per the data shared with the Home Office, as of date, action has been initiated on all of the cases referred to the High Commission. Further, the UK has also undertaken to fulfil certain commitments as part of the Migration and Mobility Protocol, on which we await demonstrable progress,” it added.
