UK Prime Minister Theresa May's refusal to relax visa rules for Indian citizens may affect the trade ties between New Delhi and London.
May has insisted that leaving the EU would allow UK to find other partners abroad including world's fastest growing economy India.
India was the first country outside Europe, May chose to visit after assuming charge as British PM. She brought with her a large delegation of business honchos to foster trade ties with India.
British foreign secretary Boris Johnson, who arrived on January 17 on a two-day visit to India, is due to explain the UK’s position on Brexit and stress how leaving the EU offers further commercial and industrial opportunities for the two countries.
Speaking about Britain's trading and relation opportunities in New Delhi, Johnson said India would be a “great force for stability”.
"I think the time is fast upon us when we need to turbo charge this relationship with a new free trade deal, such as we will shortly be able to do."
"We can't negotiate it now, but we can sketch it out in pencil on the back of an envelope."
However, the issue of visas quickly surfaced with a senior Indian official saying “mobility issues are of importance to us; we cannot separate free movement of people from the free flow of goods, services and investments”.
And S Irudaya Rajan, an advisor to the Indian government on migration issues added: “India is an important country for the UK and curbing the flow of good minds, whether they are students or skilled workers, cannot be good for the UK.”
India has been raising its concern related to visa and migration with the UK for some time now.
In the past five years, the number of Indian students studying in the UK has come down from 40,000 to 20,000 due to the change in the visa rules on post-study work.
