India said trade talks were possible with both the UK and Brussels – and said it was up to both negotiating teams to “pick up the gauntlet first”. Talks between India and the EU stalled in 2013, with the UK now able to leap ahead of Brussels in the queue as an independent state.

Piyush Goyal, India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, said: “We’re talking to the EU and I am in dialogue with the EU trade commissioner.

“I am looking for an early harvest deal. Open to discussion of a variety of subjects.

“It’s up to the UK and EU whoever picks up the gauntlet first.”

Over the last six years, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government have been trying to push exports through various programmes but has not succeeded.

Last year, India pulled out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership amid fears over China’s access to its markets.

New Delhi has also been placing trade barriers to stop cheap imports from China and replaced them with their own locally made goods for domestic consumption and exports.

Mr Goyal believes their locally sourced produce could help engage trade talks with the UK.

He added: “Apart from pharmaceuticals, we have textiles, handicrafts, leather, furniture, industrial machinery, toys are areas where India can engage with UK & EU at competitive prices.”

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This potential trade agreement comes after it was announced Turkey was “very close” to signing a post-Brexit free trade agreement with the UK.

Last week, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Melvut Cavusoglu met with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in London.

He said while there were no differences over a potential agreement, there are some technical issues that need to be ironed out.

Mr Cavusoglu told the Financial Times: “It’s going very well and we are very close to finalising it.

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“If you look at the volume of our bilateral trade, 95 percent of it is industrial products, and we agreed on that, and five percent is agriculture and services.

“We agreed already with the UK that in the post-Brexit era we will increase our bilateral trade; in volume we set a $20billion bilateral trade target.”

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and Trade Minister Ranil Jayawardena will meet with Turkey’s counterparts next week.

The latest round of talks on a post-Brexit free trade deal between London and Brussels ended on Thursday, with significant differences between the negotiating teams still remaining.

But if no deal has been agreed by the end of the transition period on December 31, a trade deal with Turkey could face a major dilemma.

As Turkey is a member of the EU customs union, any FTA deal with the UK would only be implemented once Britain has signed a trade agreement with the EU.

After Germany, Britain is Turkey’s second-largest trading partner and a FTA deal would be crucial for Turkish manufacturers, including carmakers, textile factories and white goods producers.

The Office for National Statistics said trade between the UK and Turkey totalled £18.8 billion last year, with £7.9billion in British exports, and £10.9billion of Turkish imports to the UK.

There are more than 2,500 UK companies operating in Turkey including BP, Shell, Vodafone, Unilever, BAE Systems, HSBC, Aviva and Diageo.

Around 400,000 Turks are currently living in the UK and many have benefited fro, the Ankara Agreement.

The Ankara Agreement, which Turkey signed with the European Economic Commission in 1963, allows people from the country to work and establish businesses in Britain.

Mr Cavusoglu said they are looking at two separate agreements, one is the FTA and the other is similar to the Ankara Agreement.