United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer will make his first official visit to India from October 8 to 9 at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Ministry of External Affairs announced on Saturday.
According to MEA, during the visit, on October 9 in Mumbai, the two Prime Ministers will take stock of progress in diverse aspects of the India-UK Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in line with ‘Vision 2035’, a focussed and time bound 10-year Roadmap of programmes and initiatives in key pillars of trade and investment, technology and innovation, defence and security, climate and energy, health, education and people to people relations.
Both leaders will engage with businesses and industry leaders on opportunities presented by the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) as a central pillar of the future India-UK economic partnership, MEA added.
Further, the ministry noted that Starmer and PM Modi “will also exchange views on issues of regional and global importance.”
PM Modi and PM Starmer will also attend the 6th edition of the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai and deliver keynote addresses. The leaders will also engage with industry experts, policymakers and innovators.
The visit will build on the momentum and substance generated by PM Modi’s visit to the UK on 23-24 July 2025. It will provide a valuable opportunity to reaffirm the shared vision of India and the United Kingdom to build a forward-looking partnership, according to MEA.
The India-UK FTA was signed in the presence of PM Modi and Keir Starmer, providing greater access to goods and services between the two countries.
The agreement was formalised in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and was officially signed by India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, and the UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Jonathan Reynolds, the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying said in a release.
CETA offers zero-duty access on 99 per cent of tariff lines and opens up key service sectors. Notably, for the marine sector, the agreement eliminates import tariffs on a wide range of seafood products, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of Indian exporters in the UK market. This is expected to particularly benefit exports of shrimp, frozen fish, and value-added marine products, thereby boosting India’s presence in one of its major seafood destinations, alongside labour-intensive sectors such as textiles, leather, and gems and jewellery.
India’s key seafood exports to the UK currently include Vannamei shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei), frozen squid, lobsters, frozen pomfret, and black tiger shrimp–all of which are expected to gain further market share under CETA’s duty-free access.
Under the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), all fish and fisheries commodities falling under the UK tariff schedule categories marked ‘A’ now enjoy 100 per cent duty-free access from the date of entry into force of the agreement. (ANI)
