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The Prime Minister has asserted that the Gaza ceasefire agreement "would not have occurred without the leadership of Donald Trump," yet stopped short of supporting the US president for a Nobel Prize.

Ceasefire Deal Welcomed as a "Welcome Development to the World"

The prime minister commented that the initial stage of the agreement would be a "relief to the world" and noted that the United Kingdom had contributed significantly behind the scenes with the US and mediators.

Speaking on the last day of his trade visit to India, Starmer emphasized that the agreement "needs to be put into action in full, without delay, and accompanied by the prompt removal of all limitations on life-saving humanitarian aid to Gaza."

Nobel Prize Question Answered

However, when questioned if the Nobel committee should at this time award Trump the coveted prize, Starmer suggested that time was required to know if a durable peace could be attained.

"What matters now is to move forward and implement this ... my focus now is moving this from the phase it's at now ... and make a success of this, because that is important to me more than anything else," he told reporters at a media briefing in India's financial capital.

Trade and Investment Announced During India Visit

The Prime Minister has hailed a series of agreements sealed during his tour to the country – his first time there – joined by over a hundred executives and arts figures. The trip marks the implementation of the countries' free trade agreement.

• The UK government has announced a range of financial commitments, from financial technology to university campuses, as well as the production of three Bollywood films in the UK.
• On the final day, the Prime Minister finalized a defence deal worth £350m for British-made missiles, produced in the UK region, to be used by the Indian army.

"The shared history is profound, the human connections between our people are exceptionally strong," Starmer remarked as he departed the city. "Building on our historic trade deal, we are reinventing this alliance for our times."

Digital ID System Studied

Starmer has spent time in Mumbai analyzing the Indian digital ID system, including consulting principal architects who developed the comprehensive platform utilized by over a billion individuals for social services, payments, and identification.

He suggested that the United Kingdom was considering expanding the scope of digital identification beyond making it mandatory to prove rights to work. He indicated that the Britain would in time look at connecting it to banking and payments systems – on a voluntary basis – as well as for official procedures such as home loan and school applications.

"It has been adopted on a voluntary basis [in India] in massive scale, partly because it means that you can access your own funds, make payments so much more easily than is possible with alternative methods," he noted.

"The efficiency with which it allows residents here to access services, especially financial services, is something that was acknowledged in our discussions yesterday, and actually a Fintech conversation that we had today. So we're examining those examples of how digital identification assists individuals with processes that often take excessive time and are overly complex and simplifies them for them."

Public Support for Changes

The Prime Minister acknowledged that the government had to make the case for the initiatives to the British public, which have declined sharply in public approval since he proposed them.

"In my view now we need to go out and make that case the significant advantages ... And I believe that the greater number of individuals see the benefits that accompany this ... as has happened in other countries, citizens say: 'That will make my life easier,' and therefore I want to get on with it," he stated.

Rights Issues and Global Affairs Discussed

The Prime Minister confirmed he had raised a number of difficult topics with the Indian leader regarding civil liberties and relations with Russia, though he appeared to have made minimal progress. Starmer confirmed that he and Prime Minister Modi discussed how the country was continuing to buy Russian oil, which is facing extensive international restrictions.

"For both Prime Minister Modi and me the priority on ending this situation and the various steps will be implemented to that purpose," he said. "And that was a broad spectrum of dialogue, but we outlined the actions that we are undertaking in regarding energy."

The Prime Minister also said he had raised the situation of the British Sikh activist Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, who has been detained in an Indian jail for almost a decade without facing a full trial. It is frequently mentioned as one of the worst examples of unfair treatment among UK nationals still held abroad.

But, Starmer did not indicate much advancement had been achieved. "Indeed, we did raise the consular cases," he stated. "We consistently address them when we have the opportunity to do so. I must add that the foreign secretary is scheduled to meet the relatives in the near future, as well as raising it today."

Upcoming Initiatives

The prime minister is largely anticipated to take a comparable business-oriented visit to the People's Republic of China in the coming year as part of a mission to ease diplomatic ties between the UK and China.

This bilateral connection is receiving attention because of the dismissal of a espionage investigation, said to have happened because the UK has been unwilling to provide new proof that the country is deemed a security risk.

The Prime Minister said the UK was eager to explore other trading relationships but emphasized that a trade deal with China was not on the agenda. "That's not on our list, for a bilateral pact as such, but our position is to work together where we can, confront where we need to, and this has been the consistent policy of the government in relation to China."