Indian businesses with investments in Britain would see that it was business as usual, Britain’s Minister for Asia Mark Field said, as he sought to offer reassurances to investors and others looking to the U.K. market amid the uncertainty of Brexit.
Mr. Field, the Minster for Asia and the Pacific at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, also urged businesses not to focus too much on the state of a trade deal with India, which is dependent on Britain’s ability to secure a deal with Europe, arguing that trade with Britain’s partners had continued with and without trade deals.
“The strategic partnership has never been stronger,” Mr. Field said of Britain’s relationship with India, arguing that despite the lack of references to its partnership with India in the Conservative Party election manifesto of June, the party and the government remained committed as ever to pushing forward the relationship, as Prime Minister Theresa May’s predecessor David Cameron had done.
Mr. Field, who was a Remain campaigner in last year’s referendum said of Brexit: “We need to make this work and we can only do so by being positive and having a buccaneering approach. Of course, there will be a cloud of uncertainty in the next couple of years.”
However, two or three years of transition was nothing in the grand scheme of things, he said, adding that “we will get through this.”
“The message I hope to send to Indians in the U.K. market is that it’s business as usual,” Mr. Field said, adding that he recognised that some prospective investors might delay decisions given the uncertainties. He hoped that they would be able to do so at the earliest possible opportunity, while saying it was yet to be ascertained when talks on a free trade agreement with India could begin as this would be dependent on the terms of the transition deal reached with the E.U.
Two-year transition deal
The Prime Minister had spoken of a two-year transition deal after 2019 to smooth Britain’s exit and that if the transition deal did include a form of single market membership, then trade deals with countries such as India could only be formally negotiated after this period, he said.
Mr. Field said the government welcomed the changes being brought in by the central government though British “business people who had tried to make it work in India have been frustrated by the pace of change,” and that as India continued its reform agenda, he hoped Britain could play more of a role. “I would like to see a stronger economic connection but it’s simplistic to say it’s been a disappointment,” Mr. Field said.
Asked about the issue of student visas — an issue repeatedly brought up in the context of the British-India relationship — Mr. Field said his impression of universities was that they still felt being able to attract the “brightest and the best coming out of India,” and that the government had listened to some of the concerns of students and introduced some reforms.
Role in Afghanistan
On the issue of Britain’s stance on India’s role in the new U.S.-Afghan policy, he said it was “not entirely clear” what the role for India may or not be but that it was important that there was a dialogue between Afghanistan and Pakistan that was not there before.
“I also understand the deep sensitivities on the Pakistani side, the notion of India having a role in Afghanistan that they would regard as being a red line.”
“ I do think it’s important that Afghanistan and Pakistan are able to begin to come to some arrangement. My instinct is that this would be better on a bilateral basis — other countries involving themselves in this issue or being seen to interfere may undermine the idea of being able to come together to a longer term arrangement,” Mr. Field said.
