On 24 July 2025, at Chequers (Buckinghamshire), India and the United Kingdom sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) — the comprehensive free-trade deal negotiated after Brexit.

Signed by Narendra Modi and Keir Starmer after a 6 May 2025 agreement in principle, it covers goods, services and mobility, modernising post-imperial trade links.

Negotiations began in January 2022; it is one of the UK’s major FTAs after leaving the EU and India’s second comprehensive deal with a European partner (after EFTA).

Entry into force: 15 July 2026. The document also responds to global trade pressures of the 2020s.

For India–UK relations, 24 July 2025 marks the formal CETA signing at Chequers.

Text and official releases are on GOV.UK / India’s MEA.

The India–United Kingdom CETA of 24 July 2025 remains the milestone of bilateral free trade post-Brexit.

Image: UK / India; Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: India-United Kingdom Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. Treaty text: UK-India Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (GOV.UK).