Finance Minister holds bilateral meeting with UK's Secretary of State for International Trade

UK Secretary of State for International Trade Mary Elizabeth Truss met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi yesterday. Ms Truss congratulated India for a forward-looking modern budget with its focus on investments and recovery in the post-COVID-19 world. She acknowledged India as an influential player in FinTech, Digital Economy, Start-ups, Innovation and Data.

Ministry of Finance in a tweet said, "Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman met @trussliz in New Delhi today and exchanged warm words."

Ms Truss complimented India on the prompt and effective response to COVID-19 pandemic. The close collaboration in the sphere of COVID vaccine demonstrated the close and trusted partnership between the two countries. She said, the UK government looks forward to working closely with the world's largest democracy.

In another tweet, the Ministry said, "Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman alluded to the close collaboration between the two countries through India- UK Economic and Financial Dialogue and highlighted the collaboration between UK and India on IFSC which could leverage its role as an international investment node."

Ms Sitharaman highlighted the reforms brought in through the Budget and suggested areas of closer cooperation with the UK, including investments in infrastructure, insurance sector, integrating small and medium enterprises in the global value chain. The Finance Minister recognised the close collaboration between the two countries in various fields being pursued through India-UK annual Economic and Financial Dialogue.

The meeting underlined the importance of the UK as one of the important bilateral partners of India with strong liberal democracies, shared diaspora, trade and investment. It was recognised by both sides that the bilateral trade has been growing steadily since the past decade and there exists the immense potential for the two countries to enhance it further in the light of the wide spectrum of complementarities and strengths in the post-COVID-19 and post-Brexit period.