PM Modi Meets UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Discusses Potential of India-UK Partnership
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on
Wednesday where he discussed the India-UK partnership in the post-Covid and
post-Brexit world
PM Modi termed the interaction with Raab as "excellent" adding that he looked
forward to having PM Boris Johnson attend the Republic Day ceremony. PM Modi
termed the interaction with Raab as "excellent" adding that he looked forward
to having Prime Minister Boris Johnson attend the Republic Day ceremony next
year as the chief guest.
Excellent meeting with @DominicRaab, UK Secretary of State of @FCDOGovUK. Discussed the vast potential of the India-UK partnership in the post-COVID, post-BREXIT world. Looking forward to next month's visit by PM @BorisJohnson as Chief Guest at our Republic Day celebrations. pic.twitter.com/E8cpkqbOJT
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 16, 2020
"Excellent meeting with @DominicRaab, UK Secretary of State of @FCDOGovUK
(Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office). Discussed the vast potential
of the India-UK partnership in the post-COVID, post-BREXIT world. Looking
forward to next month's visit by PM @BorisJohnson as Chief Guest at our
Republic Day celebrations," the Prime Minister wrote on Twitter.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said the UK
Foreign Secretary called on Prime Minister Modi and the discussions during the
meeting covered various facets of the two countries strategic partnership.
Raab also met with the Union Minister for Education, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.
On Tuesday, Raab met Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
Prakash Javadekar where he said that the UK will be working closely with India
to tackle climate change.
Earlier on Tuesday, the UK foreign secretary also met with External Affairs
Minister S Jaishankar where the two discussed opportunities in a post-Covid
post-Brexit world for a stronger India-UK partnership.
He said that the UK and India are committed to building a stronger defence
partnership between the two countries which would help to tackle shared issues
like terrorism, maritime security and privacy.
In their wide-ranging talks, Jaishankar and Raab had also discussed having an
'Enhanced Trade Partnership' by next year that could be a stepping stone
towards a future free trade agreement.
"We want to deepen our economic partnership -- we already have a strong trade
relationship. In the year before the pandemic hit, bilateral trade between
India and the UK grew at a vibrant 11%. Now what we want to do is to take that
to another level -- working towards a green and enhanced trade partnership,"
Raab said at a joint statement following the India-UK ministerial dialogue.
He added, "We are committed to building a stronger defence and security
partnership with our Indian friends that will help us tackle shared issues of
concerns whether it is terrorism, maritime security and including piracy in
the Western Indian Ocean."
The UK Foreign Secretary said that the two countries "want to" work together
in order to ensure secure telecom and 5G networks.
The External Affairs Ministry said that Raab's visit will pave the way for
further strengthening of the partnership across trade, defence, climate,
migration and mobility, education, and health sectors in the post-Covid,
post-Brexit context.
Raab's three-day visit to India from December 14-17 comes at a time the UK is
holding complex negotiations with the European Union on reaching a post-Brexit
trade deal. In the wake of Brexit, the UK has been looking at ramping up trade
cooperation with leading economies like India.
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