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UK should partner with India to strengthen rules-based world order: Rajnath Singh
Sunak underlined Britain’s keenness to strengthen the defence and security pillar of bilateral relations, including through government backing for stronger business and technology partnerships
The UK and other like-minded countries should work with India to strengthen a stable global rules-based order, including through partnering New Delhi in its “inexorable rise”, defence minister Rajnath Singh has told British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Singh, the first Indian defence minister to visit the UK in 22 years, met Sunak in London on Wednesday to discuss defence and economic cooperation and how the two sides can work together to bolster the rules-based order. Singh also met his British counterpart Grant Shapps and foreign secretary David Cameron.
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Singh told Sunak about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to make India a developed country by the middle of the 21st century, and noted the country’s economic growth is “sustainably on the upswing”, poverty has been reduced and a business-friendly architecture has been put in place. At the global level, Singh said, the Indian government is “ready to partner with friends like the UK to strengthen the rules-based world order”.
The UK and other like-minded countries “should work with India for strengthening a peaceful and stable global rules-based order, including through partnering India in its inexorable rise, which can be strengthened, reinforced and speeded up with friendly collaboration”, Singh was quoted as saying in a readout from the Indian side.
Singh added in a post on X, “We discussed issues pertaining to defence, economic cooperation and how [we] could work together for strengthening a peaceful and stable global rules-based order.”
He pointed to a recent enhancement in bilateral defence engagement, including joint exercises, training, capability building, increased interoperability, and military-to-military ties especially in the maritime domain.
Sunak agreed with Singh on the need for the UK and India to work together in trade, defence and technology. He expressed hope that negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) could be brought to a “successful conclusion soon”, the readout said.
Sunak underlined Britain’s keenness to strengthen the defence and security pillar of bilateral relations, including through government backing for stronger business and technology partnerships with Indian counterparts.
India and the UK initially had plans to finalise the FTA by October 2022 but were unable to meet the deadline because of differences on key issues. The two sides have been able to agree on most of the 26 chapters of the proposed agreement, though divergences remain on matters such as tariffs on alcohol and electric vehicles, rules of origin and mobility of professionals.
During the meeting between Singh and Shapps, the UK announced it will deploy a littoral response group, a specialised formation for amphibious warfare, in the Indian Ocean in 2024 and its carrier strike group in 2025 to train and operate with Indian forces.
The deployment of the two groups, among the UK’s most advanced naval capabilities, marks a “decisive step in bolstering UK-India security ties”, the British side said in a statement.
India and the UK confirmed several new initiatives in defence, including the launch of Defence Partnership-India, a special office designed to further collaboration. A Youth Exchange MoU was signed to strengthen relations between cadet organisations of the two sides, and a letter of arrangement was finalised to facilitate research and development focused on next-generation capabilities.
At his meeting with foreign secretary Cameron, Singh outlined his goal of integrating defence industries of India and the UK, including through supply chain integration to build resilience. He emphasised the importance of identifying joint projects that India and the UK can implement jointly.
Cameron reiterated the UK government’s desire to cooperate with India in defence as one of the ways to strengthen support for a rules-based global order.
Singh interacted with industry leaders at the UK-India Defence CEO Roundtable in London. He also interacted with the more than 160 prominent people of Indian-origin at the Indian high commission. A number of former Indian military personnel, including some family members of World War 2 veterans, were also present.
