London: Prime minister Theresa May flies to India on Sunday to prepare the ground for one of Britain’s key trade agreements after it quits the European Union.

The premier will arrive in New Delhi with trade secretary Liam Fox and a delegation of 33 business leaders to cement links with the world’s fastest-growing major economy and seek to remove barriers to British companies winning contracts.

“The UK and India are natural partners—the world’s oldest democracy and the world’s largest democracy," May said in a statement. “This is a partnership about our shared security and shared prosperity. It is a partnership of potential. And on this visit I intend to harness that potential, rebooting an age-old relationship in this age of opportunity and with that helping to build a better Britain."

The visit will include signing of host of commercial agreements that combined will create as many as 1,370 UK jobs, according to the statement.

While Britain isn’t permitted to open negotiations with India over a trade deal until it has formally started proceedings to leave the EU, May will use talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to explore what a post-Brexit relationship might look like, according to a person familiar with her plans.

Modi’s reforms

Britain will offer to support Modi’s plans for reform to regulation and tax procedures to help make India a more attractive business partner. May will also seek to pave the way for British companies to gain from India’s planned investment in health, skills and infrastructure, the official said.

Fox, who will lead the charge for trade deals around the world after Britain starts the process of leaving the EU by triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, has praised India as a beacon of free trade.

“In 1993, around 45% of India’s population sat below the poverty line, in 2011 it was 22%—and it is no coincidence that in the intervening period India embraced globalization and started to liberalize its economy," he said in a speech in Manchester on 29 September. “Ask yourself whether there has been a greater emancipator of the world’s poor than free trade."

India has the second-biggest army in the world and is the world’s largest importer of military equipment. Fox, a former defence secretary, will make the case for British armaments and aerospace companies to have a bigger share of the market.

Executives from Diageo Plc, Lloyd’s of London, Standard Chartered Plc and Aviva Plc are among those with May on the trip, according to the government statement.

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