Liz Truss has a ‘sweet spot’ for India

PTI

London, September 5

Newly-elected Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister in waiting Liz Truss is among the senior British politicians known for championing deeper India-UK strategic and economic ties, describing them as a “sweet spot” of global trade dynamics.

Know the new Tory leader

• Truss was born in Oxford to a maths professor father and nurse teacher mother
• She grew up and lived in different parts of the UK, including Paisley in Scotland and Leeds, Kidderminster and London in England
• She is married to accountant Hugh O’Leary and has two teenage daughters
• She has worked for three former Prime Ministers
• Was promoted by David Cameron to environment secretary and worked as justice secretary under Theresa May
• She was eventually made foreign secretary by Boris Johnson in 2021.

‘Frustrated’ at being compared to Thatcher

Liz Truss got "frustrated" after she was "compared to Margaret Thatcher", the media reported. When asked whether she models herself on the former Tory Prime Minister, she disagreed with the accusation, saying: "I don't accept that, I am my own person." Aged nine, she played Thatcher in a mock election at school, the BBC reported. She apparently got "zero votes -- I didn't even vote for myself". IANS

Faces Russian hostility on Day 1

London: Scornful of Truss long before she became the PM, the Kremlin is in no mood to grant a honeymoon period to Britain's new leader. Among the many foreign politicians who flew to Moscow to head off an invasion of Ukraine, it was Truss who appeared to annoy Russia's leadership more than any other. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described their conversation as like a dialogue between deaf and mute people. Reuters

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Relations with London might deteriorate further. I wouldn't like to say that things can change for the worse, because it's hard to imagine anything worse. — Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin Spokesman

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I am honoured to be elected. Thank you for putting your trust in me. I will take bold action to get all of us through these tough times.

It was Truss as International Trade Secretary, who signed off on the India-UK Enhanced Trade Partnership (ETP) for the Boris Johnson-led government in May last year, which marked the starting point of the ongoing free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations.

The 47-year-old senior Cabinet minister made visits to India and held virtual talks with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, during which she described the country as a “big, major opportunity”.

“I see the UK and India in a sweet spot of the trade dynamics that are building up,” said Truss soon after signing the ETP. “We are looking at a comprehensive trade agreement that covers everything, from financial services to legal services to digital and data, as well as goods and agriculture. We think there is strong possibility for us to get an early agreement, where we lower tariffs on both sides and start to see more goods flowing between our two countries,” she said.

On her promotion as Foreign Secretary, Truss handed over the baton at the Department for International Trade (DIT) to Anne Marie-Trevelyan, who is widely expected to continue in her role as International Trade Secretary and take forward the UK-India FTA talks.

Recently on the campaign trail in her contest with former chancellor Rishi Sunak to be elected Tory leader, Truss reaffirmed that she remains “very, very committed” to strengthening bilateral ties at a hustings event of the party’s Conservative Friends of India diaspora group.

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