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External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi has said India is working sincerely with the UK for finalisation of the proposed free trade agreement (FTA), days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Rishi Sunak agreed on the early conclusion of the deal.

Bagchi stated ‘As we have said earlier, the matter of negotiations is best left to the trade ministers and their teams of officials. I cannot comment on the status. I certainly do not have any target date.’ The issue of the FTA figured in the first telephonic conversation between the two prime ministers on October 27.

In April, the two sides had set a Diwali deadline for concluding the FTA but the deal could not be finalised in view of differences over certain issues. It is learnt that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly took stock of the ongoing negotiations for the FTA during their talks last week.