British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday shared a picture of him with his Indian counterpart Narendra after their first meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia's Bali. Interestingly, Sunak, an Indian-origin politician, chose to give the caption in Hindi: "Ek mazboot dosti."
"United by friendship," wrote Sunak, followed by a tweet in Hindi.
Sunak had also expressed his optimism about a trade deal with India. Sunak's office said Britain was negotiating a trade deal with India, which if agreed would be the first of its kind New Delhi would have made with a European country.
"They looked forward to the agreement of a UK-India free trade deal, which has the potential to unlock investment and increase jobs in both our countries, as well as expanding our deep cultural links," Sunak's office said in a statement.
{{/usCountry}}"They looked forward to the agreement of a UK-India free trade deal, which has the potential to unlock investment and increase jobs in both our countries, as well as expanding our deep cultural links," Sunak's office said in a statement.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, Modi said, "robust ties" with the United Kingdom were of great importance to India.
"We discussed ways to increase commercial linkages, raise the scope of security cooperation in the context of India's defence reforms and make people-to-people ties even stronger," Modi tweeted after the meeting.
Both India and Britain launched negotiations for the free-trade agreement (FTA) in January with an aim to conclude talks by October 24, but the deadline was missed due to a political crisis in the UK, reported Live Mint. The bilateral trade between India and Britain increased to $17.5 billion in 2021-22 compared to $13.2 billion in 2020-21. India's exports stood at $10.5 billion in 2021-22, while imports were $7 billion.