The UK-India trade ties would remain strong after Britain leaves the European Union, a top Labour leader has said, emphasising that the trade negotiations with India should be a top priority for any government in the UK. Labour leader and Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry also asserted that her party\u2019s government would insist that trade, development and human rights are all inseparable parts of the same conversation.<\/p>\n
Speaking to members of the Indian Journalists\u2019 Association here last evening, Emily said she did not doubt that the UK-India trade ties would remain strong after Britain leaves the European Union. \u201cWe need to be clear-eyed and realistic about how much can be achieved and how quickly,\u201d she said. She said she believed that trade negotiations with India should be a top priority for any government \u2013 Labour or Tory.<\/p>\n
Emily noted that in terms of the UK\u2019s foreign policy, too, Labour has been and remains fully committed to maintaining strong ties with India as a vital ally, a partner and a friend. \u201cBut there are clearly challenges ahead. Perhaps the first among them, it should come as no surprise, is Brexit. Taken as a whole, the EU is India\u2019s biggest trading partner. And the UK still accounts for a substantial chunk of that. So naturally, questions are being asked \u2013 in Brussels, London and New Delhi \u2013 about what the future of our trade relations will look like,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She pointed out that the negotiations on an EU-India free-trade agreement, which have been dragging on for a decade now, have been so protracted precisely because there are still so many barriers to tariff-free trade.<\/p>\n
Emily stated that India has become a leading contender for a permanent seat on a reformed UN Security Council, having already served as an elected member no fewer than seven times. She also slammed President Donald Trump for announcing US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn his speech, Trump actually singled India out in claiming that the country: \u2018makes its participation contingent on receiving billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid from developed countries\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever mind that the claim was untrue \u2013 and later completely discredited \u2013 it showed contempt not just for international efforts to address climate change, but for one of the countries that could be most severely affected by its consequences,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
She said a Labour government would not just share India\u2019s anger at such sentiments, but also be willing to express them loudly and directly at the US President. Emily said that the US has abdicated its role as leader of the free world and there is a vacancy to be filled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UK-India trade ties would remain strong after Britain leaves the European Union, a top Labour leader has said, emphasising that the trade negotiations with India should be a top priority for any government in the UK. Labour leader and Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry also asserted that her party\u2019s government would insist that trade, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8192,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8190\/revisions\/8192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}