London (AFP) - Prime Minister Keir Starmer praised Britain’s “unique bonds” with India as he and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi formally signed a recently announced UK-India trade deal during talks on Thursday.

Starmer hailed the agreement as a “landmark moment” for both countries as he hosted India’s leader at his Chequers country estate, northwest of London.

“This is not the extent or the limit of our collaboration with India,” added the British premier, whose year-old government is struggling to fire up an economy weakened by years of stagnant growth and high inflation.

“We have unique bonds of history, of family and of culture and we want to strengthen our relationship further, so that it is even more ambitious, modern and focused on the long term,” he said.

Starmer and Modi announced in May they had struck a free trade agreement that the British government says will eventually add £4.8 billion ($6.5 billion) a year to the UK economy.

The UK and India hope the accord will boost trade between the two countries by £25.5 billion, as well as bolstering the British economy and wages.

Modi, standing alongside Starmer during a media appearance, described the deal as a “blueprint for our shared prosperity”.

Britain and India are the sixth and fifth largest global economies respectively, with a trade relationship worth around £41 billion and investment supporting more than 600,000 jobs across both countries.

The accord slashes tariffs on imports of UK goods into India, including whisky, cosmetics and medical devices.

In return, the United Kingdom will cut tariffs on clothes, footwear and food products including frozen prawns from India.

Starmer and Modi also discussed last month’s Air India disaster in which 241 people died when a London-bound flight crashed after taking off from Ahmedabad in western India, Downing Street said.

Some 169 Indian passengers and 52 British nationals were killed in the June 12 crash, one of the deadliest plane disasters in terms of the number of British fatalities.

Starmer told Modi the UK “will continue to support all those affected by the tragedy,” according to a readout of their meeting provided by his office.

The statement did not say whether the two leaders specifically discussed allegations that the repatriation of victims had been marred by errors.

- Sikh blogger -

A lawyer for 20 British families said this week that one relative found that a returned coffin contained “co-mingled” remains.

A different family was told a coffin contained the body of someone else entirely, not their loved one, he said, according to UK media.

India’s foreign ministry has said all remains “were handled with utmost professionalism” and that it was “continuing to work with the UK authorities on addressing any concerns related to this issue”.

The readout also did not mention the case of Scottish sikh blogger Jagtar Singh Johal, imprisoned in India since 2017 on accusations of being part of a terror plot against right-wing Hindu leaders.

He has not been convicted of a crime and in March was cleared of one of the nine charges against him.

His brother Gurpreet Singh Johal had called for the case to be “high on the agenda” during the meeting.

Starmer and Modi have met twice recently, at the G7 summit in Canada last month and at the G20 meeting in Brazil last year.

Modi was also due to see King Charles III during his brief stay in Britain, his fourth visit since becoming India’s leader in 2014.