The 14th round of free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations between India and the UK closed on Saturday. Formal negotiations were put on hold as India heads into election campaign mode for the general elections between April and June.

According to UK officials familiar with the discussions, a lot of progress has been made, but the teams are not in a position to conclude an agreement which led to the round 14 closing on Saturday.

The next round of formal trade talks can commence only after the Lok Sabha polls are concluded.

The India-UK FTA negotiations, which opened in January 2022, are aimed at securing an “ambitious” outcome for bilateral trade – currently worth around 38.1 billion pounds a year, according to official statistics from last month.

“We anticipate that while some talks might happen between rounds, the next round of negotiations will take place after the Indian elections,” official sources in the UK said.

“Neither side is walking away from talks. It’s just that we don’t have what we need yet to finalise a deal that meets our joint ambition across goods, services and investment. We’re very proud of the track record we have and how far we’ve been able to come with this trade deal so far. Negotiators have worked really hard in the past few years, and we’ve managed to get a lot of chapters closed,” the sources said.