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Boris Johnson to begin two-day India visit today | What’s on UK PM's agenda
A major focus of Johnson's talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on the situation in the Indo-Pacific as the United Kingdom is strongly opposed to any kind of coercion in the region.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will begin his two-day visit to India on Thursday with an aim to strengthen the bilateral ties, especially in the areas of defence and security and trade. He is unlikely to lecture India on how to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, people familiar with the development said news agency PTI on Wednesday.
India abstained last month in the United Nations vote condemning the Russian invasion, and the two countries continue to trade with each other.
A major focus of Johnson's talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on the situation in the Indo-Pacific as the United Kingdom is strongly opposed to any kind of coercion in the region.
PTI reported that the UK is ready to extend its cooperation in realising Modi's vision of making India a hub for defence manufacturing and for the transfer of technologies for joint production of military hardware.
Unlike on recent British prime ministerial trips to India, there will not be a large accompanying business delegation, emphasising that the focus for this trip is around politics.
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Johnson was scheduled due to visit India in January last year, but that trip was cancelled as the second wave of the Covid-19 swept the UK.
Here's Boris Johnson's India visit tentative itinerary:
>Johnson's two-day visit will begin with Gujarat, a state that is home to a large number of Indian diaspora in the UK including the family of UK home secretary Priti Patel.
>In Gujarat, he is expected to announce investments and new collaboration in science, health and technology. The British government said this would be the first time a British prime minister has visited the sprawling coastal state famed for its spirit of entrepreneurship and the ancestral home to about half of the British-Indian population.
>From there, Johnson will visit New Delhi for talks on Friday with Modi, where the two leaders will discuss a new defence partnership and a free trade agreement which the two countries began discussing at the start of the year. Johnson will push for progress in talks on a free trade deal, which Britain is hoping to strike as part of its post-Brexit strategy. His office said such a trade deal was predicted to boost Britain's total trade by up to £28 billion ($36.5 billion) annually by 2035.
>Britain was India's third-largest trading partner at the start of this century, but slipped to 17th last year, India government figures show. India's biggest trading partners are the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates. India's longstanding demand for easier access to British visas for students and skilled workers in any trade talks will also prove politically difficult for the British government.
>In the meeting, the two prime ministers will also review the implementation of the Roadmap 2030 and set their vision for further intensifying cooperation across the full spectrum of bilateral ties, said the ministry of external affairs.
(With inputs from agencies)
