High Commission of India

London

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India-UK Bilateral Brief

India-UK historical ties, over the years have transformed into a robust, multi-faceted, mutually beneficial relationship. During the India-UK Summit in virtual mode on 4 May 2021, Prime Minister Modi and the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to a new and transformational India-UK 'Comprehensive Strategic Partnership' and an ambitious India-UK Roadmap 2030 to steer cooperation for the next ten years. Negotiations for India-UK Free Trade Agreement began in January 2022.

2. In the general elections held in the UK on 4th July 2024, the Labour Party won 412 out of 650 seats and formed government for the first time since 2010 with Sir Keir Starmer as the Prime Minister. In its election manifesto, the Labour Party had stated that it would seek a new strategic partnership with India including a Free Trade Agreement and deepening of relations in security, education, technology and climate change. Both Prime Ministers had bilateral meeting on the sidelines of G20 Leaders’ Summit in Brazil on 18 November 2024 and on the sidelines of G7 Summit in Canada in June 2025. On conclusion of the FTA negotiations and at the invitation of PM Starmer, PM visited the UK on 23-24 July 2025. They witnessed the signing of India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and adopted a new Vision 2035 to steer the bilateral relations for the next ten years. Prime Minister Starmer travelled to India on 08-09 October 2025 for his first official visit to India as Prime Minister and participated at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai.

Trade and investments

3. India – UK bilateral trade (both goods and services) stood at £47.4 billion in the four quarters to the end of Q3 2025 (January-December), an increase of 11.7% or £5.0 billion in current prices from the same period in 2024. Out of the above, India’s total imports from the UK amounted to £18.9 billion and India’s total exports amounted to £28.5 billion. India was the UK’s 11th largest trading partner in this period accounting for 2.5% of UK’s total trade. (Source: DBT, UK)
4. CETA provides an unprecedented duty-free access to 99 per cent of India’s exports to the UK, and 91 % of UK’s exports covering nearly 100% of the trade value. This includes labour-intensive sectors such as textiles, leather, marine products, gems and jewellery, and toys as well as high-growth sectors like engineering goods, chemicals, and auto components. This will spur large-scale employment generation, empowering artisans, women-led enterprises, and MSMEs. The agreement includes a wide-ranging package covering Information Technology /IT enabled services, financial and professional services, business consulting, education, telecom, architecture, and engineering that will unlock high-value opportunities and job creation.Bilateral trade has already reached USD 56 billion, with a target to double this by 2030.
5. Apart from tariff elimination, CETA also provides for simplified Rules of Origin, boosts Services and Professional Mobility and introduces Double Contribution Convention (DCC) which exempts Indian workers and their employers from paying UK social security contributions for up to three years when on temporary assignments. Around 75,000 workers and over 900 companies are expected to benefit, resulting in savings of more than INR 4,000 crore.
6. There are 971 Indian companies operating in the UK, with combined revenues of almost £68 billion. UK is the 6^thlargest inward investor in India and has invested US$ 35.28 billion in FDI inflows between April 2000 – September 2024. There are 667 British companies in India with a combined turnover of approximately INR 5082 billion. Total outward FDI to UK is $19 billion till March 2024. Indian companies in UK are employing over 1.7 lakh people in UK and the UK companies in India are employing over 5 lakh people.

Defence and Security

7. The Defence Engagement between India and the UK covers a broad spectrum of activities including joint military exercises, port calls, defence technological cooperation, promoting Make in India, subject matter expert exchanges for exchange of best practises (SMEEs), defence education and defence procurement. During Prime Minister's visit in July 2025, the two sides adopted a ten -year Defence Industrial Roadmap for co-development and co-production of key defence products and platforms. Dialogue mechanisms such as 2+2 Dialogue, Defence Consultative Group (DCG) meet regularly to to take forward discussions on defence cooperation. Joint Military Exercises and Exchange of military personnel take place regularly.

Technology and Innovation

8. Anew ‘Technology Security Initiative’ (TSI) was signed in July 2024 to bring into sharper focus collaboration in critical and emerging technologies (CET) across priority sectors. It seeks to reinforce existing collaborative efforts in various technologies, broaden the mandates of existing mechanisms, and establish new mechanisms for cooperation. An anniversary Statement was issued during PM's visit to the UK in July 2024 to mark theachievements of TSI in last one year and to underscore the transformative potential of the TSI to deliver cutting-edge innovations and generate investment across the entire technology value chain.
9. India-UK Science and Innovation Council (SIC) which is held once every two years is chaired by the Ministers on both side to develop bilateral relationship in science, technology and innovation. In the past few years, the UK has emerged as as India’s second largest international research and innovation partner with joint research programme to the tune of £300-400 million.
10. The UK Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, AI Minister Kanishka Narayan, Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak participated at the AI Impact Summit held in Delhi from 17-19 February 2026.

Health

11. India-UK bilateral cooperation in mitigating the effects of COVID-19 Pandemic was significant. The joint research and development of the COVID-19 vaccine, under a licensing agreement between UK-based AstraZeneca and Serum Institute of India, was an unprecedented example of India-UK cooperation in addressing global issues of concern and is bound to lay a solid foundation for our close bilateral partnership across varied sectors. “India-UK Framework agreement for collaboration on health care workforce”was signed in July 2022 in New Delhi to support for recruitment and training of Nurses, Allied Health Professionals, and other categories of healthcare professionals identified by both the Participants.
12. In January 2025, India and the UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Health and Life Sciences. During the recent visit of Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer to India, a Letter of Intent (LoI) between ICMR and NIHR, United Kingdom on Health Research was signed between both the nations.

Education

14. The UK is one of the most preferred destinations for higher studies among Indian students. India and the UK signed mutual recognition of academic qualifications Memorandum of Understanding on 21 July 2022, giving a fillip to cooperation in the education sector between the two countries. Several Universities have been allowed to open campuses in India to help realise the goal of New Education Policy (NEP) to make quality education accessible to all.
15. Several UK universities have been granted approval by University Grants Commission (UGC) and International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), Gift City to open their campuses in India. These include Southampton University in Gurugram, Queen's University, Belfast, University of Surrey, Coventry University at GIFT City, Gujarat; University of Liverpool and University of Lancaster at Bengaluru and University of Bristol, University of York, University of Aberdeen at Mumbai.  

Climate and Clean Energy

15. India and the UK have had robust climate and clean energy cooperationthrough collaboration on initiatives such as the International Solar Alliance, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, One Sun One World One Grid (OSOWOG), Road Transport Breakthrough, Zero Emission Vehicle Transition Council (ZEVTC) etc. During Prime Minister Starmer's visit to India in October 2025, the two sides announced the ‘India-UK Climate Finance Initiative’ to enable scaling up of climate finance, unlocking green growth and new investment opportunities for both countries. A new joint investment in the Climate Tech Start-up Fund and the establishment of Offshore Wind Taskforce was also announced during the visit.

Indians in the UK

16. The UK has a large Indian diaspora of 1.864 million as per 2021 Census. It forms about 2.6% of the total population of UK, which is estimated at 68 million (in 2022). As per the census, there are 3,69,000 persons holding Indian passport. The energy and ambition of Indian diaspora is reflected in high rates of employment and professional qualifications. The Indian diaspora has made valuable contributions in the areas of academia, literature, arts, medicines, science, sports, industry, business, and politics.
17. India and UK share robust cooperation on migration governed by the Migration and Mobility Partnership (MMP) Agreement signed on 4 May 2021 with the intention to address illegal immigration as well as swifter movement of working professionals between the two countries-an important element of India-UK economic partnership. Announced in 2022, Young Professional Scheme, 3000 visas are provided every year to graduates between the age of 18-30 to get 2-year visa to live and work in each other’s country. Efforts are underway to popularise the scheme among young professionals on both sides.
    
    Important Bilateral Visits

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