Britain, India strike major trade deals

LONDON: British and Indian businesses signed trade and investment deals worth more than $1.6 billion in London on Monday, in the latest round of annual talks on boosting economic ties.

Britain's finance minister George Osborne hosted his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee and business chiefs in London, signing deals worth more than £1 billion ($1.6 billion, 1.1 billion euros), Britain's Treasury said.

The gathering comes after India on Friday cleared a $7.2-billion deal for Reliance Industries Ltd to sell a major stake in two dozen of its oil and gas blocks to Britain's BP.

"Today's dialogue confirmed billions of pounds of trade deals between British and Indian companies," Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne told a joint press conference in London.

"I particularly welcome the Indian government's approval, ahead of our discussion today, of the deal between BP and Reliance in the Indian oil and gas sector.

"This is the single largest foreign investment in India. It's evidence of a strong two-way relationship.

"We're also confirming today a number of smaller-scale but significant deals between other British and Indian firms.

"In total over 3,000 British firms are investing in or planning to invest in India."

Osborne said some of the leading business figures from Britain and India would be joining him and Mukherjee for discussions later.

London is determined to boost trade with Brazil, China and India to help drag Britain out of the financial crisis.

Mukherjee and Osborne demanded action from the European Union, the Group of 20 and the International Monetary Fund to help secure the worldwide economic recovery.

Osborne said he hoped a free-trade agreement between the EU and India would be in place by the end of the year.

"We should not let negotiations flounder as we work towards an ambitious agreement which will unlock significant trade and investment opportunities as well as wider European agreement on trade," he said.

"We agreed the G20 must deliver a concrete action plan for securing a strong, balanced global recovery," the chancellor added.

The trade visit was British Prime Minister David Cameron's first port of call after coming to office in May last year.

The two countries are to meet for a further round of trade talks in New Delhi next year.

Under the BP-Reliance agreement, announced in February, BP will buy a 30-percent stake in 23 of Reliance's oil and gas blocks, including India's largest gas field KG-D6, for $7.2 billion.

The deal also envisages a performance payment of up to $1.8 billion if the tie-up leads to the development of commercial discoveries.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011