During Modi’s July visit, the U.K. government said the TSI partnership would lead to the creation of a joint center on AI. Collaboration on graphene and critical minerals is also underway with the second phase of the UK-India Critical Minerals Supply Chain Observatory due to begin.
Starmer will bring business delegations in tow, including ones focused on education and critical minerals.
The TSI is overseen by the national security advisers in each country and is reviewed every six months. One of Starmer’s deputy national security advisers was in India last week “for a conversation on some of the outcomes that they think are moving,” according to the person close to the planning cited above.
Collaboration on critical minerals is one of the workstreams that is “moving quickly,” the person added, saying the conversations could lead to “a good set of outcomes and announcements.”
Britain and India will also hold a joint economic trade council meeting, a ministerial process with business, to look at how to leverage the trade deal Modi and Starmer struck in July.
“Different sectors will have different opinions of what might be a problem, what is still a problem, or what could be improved in a regulatory way,” they said, noting that while not every will get resolved immediately, that the process provides “clarity” that will allow both sides to ensure the trade deal provides value immediately when it enters into force.