New Delhi: 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 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 (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.
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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 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">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, 2020Excellent 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
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said in a tweet "the UK Foreign Secretary called on Prime Minister Modi and the discussions during the meeting covered various facets of the two countries strategic partnership".
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UK Foreign Secretary @DominicRaab called on PM @narendramodi.
— Anurag Srivastava (@MEAIndia) December 16, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
Discussions covered various facets of our strategic partnership. pic.twitter.com/WwQMAblrmF
">UK Foreign Secretary @DominicRaab called on PM @narendramodi.
— Anurag Srivastava (@MEAIndia) December 16, 2020
Discussions covered various facets of our strategic partnership. pic.twitter.com/WwQMAblrmFUK Foreign Secretary @DominicRaab called on PM @narendramodi.
— Anurag Srivastava (@MEAIndia) December 16, 2020
Discussions covered various facets of our strategic partnership. pic.twitter.com/WwQMAblrmF
Also read: UK Foreign Secretary arrives in India for four-day visit
On Tuesday, ex-envoy Ashok Sajjanhar told ETV Bharat that India is an excellent partner of UK. He added saying, the visit of the British Foreign Secretary to India is very significant and the United Kingdom is no longer a member of EU so, it is fully within its right to enter into agreements with other countries and India is undoubtedly an important partner.
The prime minister had invited his British counterpart to be Republic Day chief guest in a telephone conversation on November 27. The visit was confirmed by Downing Street on Tuesday.
Raab’s visit to India comes at a time massive protests by farmers are taking place on the outskirts of Delhi against three agricultural laws passed by Parliament in September.
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.
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.
Also read: Visit of UK's FS to India is significant as far as geopolitics in the UK is concerned: Ex-envoy
"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.
The UK Foreign Secretary said that the two countries "want to" work together 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 is on a three-day visit to India from Dec 14-17.
