Nirmala Sitharaman to meet UK business minister on Friday

New Delhi: UK business minister Sajid Javid will call on commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday and discuss ways to strengthen trade and economic ties between the two countries.

“Secretary of State for Business and President Board of Trade, UK - Sajid Javid to call on Smt @nsitharaman tomorrow,” the commerce and industry ministry said in a tweet on Thursday.

The meeting assumes significance in the backdrop of Britain’s decision to exit from the European Union, with which India is negotiating a comprehensive free-trade agreement.

With this decision, India will have to rework the proposed agreement. The British minister is also set to hold talks with senior management of Tata Steel Ltd in Mumbai in connection with the sale of its unit in the UK.

Confederation of Indian Industry president Naushad Forbes had recently said that there is a lot of merit now in negotiating a separate free-trade agreement with the UK. The bilateral trade between India and the UK stood at $14 billion in 2015-16 as against $14.33 billion in 2014-15.