The year of elections in some of the world’s major democracies is coming to a close, throwing up many changes for some and a reboot for others. Here are some of the UK-India highlights that defined the Year That Was 2024, with some glimpses of what lies in store for 2025.
At the very start of the year, the British Future think tank had projected that the UK was on course to elect the most diverse Parliament in history. This went on to be the case when the July General Election results came in.
The year began with a historic Indian visit of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the first in decades and reflecting the strength of the bilateral partnership across all key sectors. He was received at 10 Downing Street by then UK PM Rishi Sunak, amid an increasingly embattled scenario on the domestic front. But relations with India remained at the forefront of his Conservative Party government, backed up by India Global Forum’s annual Parliamentary Lunch. The IGF London summit in June saw the shadow cabinet also lining up to take charge as the polls increasingly began to forecast a Labour Party win.
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There seemed to be somewhat of a race against time to try and get the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations wrapped up, but this was eventually not to be. We enter 2025 with the prospect of the talks relaunching early in the New Year after Prime Ministers Keir Starmer and Narendra Modi shook on it at the G20 Summit in Brazil.
Diwali 2024 marked another British Indian milestone, this time with the exit of the country’s first prime minister of Indian heritage bowing out. While his successor tried to keep up the tradition of lighting diyas on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street, a misstep over the choice of menu forced an apology to the British Hindu community.
With UK-India relations on a strong footing as the year draws to a close, there is much to look forward to on the bilateral front in 2025.
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