Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Post

Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds MP has announced the government’s intention to deliver trade negotiations with international partners, while putting UK businesses and economic growth at the centre of our new trade strategy 👉 https://lnkd.in/ek36svVH

I entered Parliament in 2000. India had not yet reached the top ten biggest economies in the world. Nokia was just about to release its iconic 3310 mobile. Contrast that with today. India is on track to be the world’s third largest economy by 2030. And Chat GPT contains roughly 400,000 times as much text data as a Nokia 3310 user could store. India is the emerging superpower of the 21st century. And technological change is one of the defining features of the global economy. That’s why I was in India yesterday, where I had the great honour of meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s External Affairs Minister. I also announced our new Technology Security Initiative. This will mean real action on the technologies of the future. On AI and quantum. Health tech and biotech. Critical minerals and semiconductors. The UK and India are an ideal match in this field. We share the same commitment to investing in innovative technology, seeing it as crucial to unlocking growth and staying competitive in a rapidly changing world. Britain’s universities are world-leading centres of research. We are home to more tech unicorns – tech start-ups with a value of more than $1 billion – than anywhere else in Europe. Likewise, India’s vibrant startup ecosystem is a global powerhouse, boasting the third-highest number of tech unicorns in the world, with over 100 startups valued at more than $1 billion. And Prime Minister Modi has made a thriving tech ecosystem one of his top priorities. Last year, India announced huge new funds for semiconductors and quantum computing. We have complementary strengths and skills. For example, our work on critical minerals will bring together industry and academia from Bombay, Madras and Bhubaneshwar with Cambridge and Birmingham. And it will connect experts from bodies like the British Geologic Survey and Geological Survey of India. And, crucially, this forms part of a much wider strategic partnership. The UK and India have deep historic ties. But it is our shared interests which motivate us to cooperate more in the present. And it is our people who are driving that cooperation into the future – the many ties between individuals, families and businesses truly represent a living bridge between our two countries. Visiting Delhi before I became Foreign Secretary, I pledged that, if elected, I would visit again within my first month in office. I have been Foreign Secretary for less than three weeks, and I have visited already. This sends a signal. Our new Technology Security Initiative sends a signal. It’s time to invest in the UK-India partnership for the long-term.