British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is likely to attend the ICC World Cup 2023 match between India and England on October 29 in Lucknow.
The Men in Blue and the defending champions will face off in the 29th match of the tournament at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium.
India and the UK are also likely to sign the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) during Sunak's visit. Sunak came to India last month to attend the G20 Summit. On the sidelines of the summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sunak held bilateral talks.
India-UK Free Trade Agreement
The two sides were exploring the possibility of having the visit around October 28 but nothing has been finalised yet, they said, suggesting that the visit is linked to the finalisation of the ambitious FTA.
The two sides are learnt to have finalised around 24 of the 26 chapters in the FTA and are now looking at sealing it by bridging differences on certain contentious issues, including mobility of people and import duty concessions on certain items, they said.
Comprehensive Strategic Partnership
The India-UK relationship was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during the India-UK virtual summit held between Modi and his then British counterpart, Boris Johnson, in May 2021.
At the summit, the two sides adopted a 10-year roadmap to expand ties in the key areas of trade and economy, defence and security, climate change and people-to-people connections, among others.
