New Delhi: Jaishankar on Tuesday said that the UK is an enormously important partner of India and that the relationship between the two countries has the potential of being scaled up to more.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, India’s Ex Envoy Ashok Sajjanhar said, “Visit by the UK FS Dominic Raab at this juncture when there is such a churning as far as geopolitics is going and also when the UK itself is undergoing very tedious negotiations with the European Union on Brexit, it is very significant and very important. The United Kingdom is looking out to the whole world to develop its new relationship and in that context; India occupies a very important place".
“United Kingdom is a democracy as well as India. Both countries share the same values of democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech and expression, so there is a natural convergence as far as values are concerned.
India is also a very large economy as far as purchasing is concerned and fifth-largest economy in nominal dollar value terms. Very soon in a few years, it is going to be a five trillion dollar economy so the huge market of India has great attractiveness for the UK”, said Sajjanhar.
Trade investment is also an important factor of the bilateral talk. Emphasizing on FTA, Sajjanhar said that 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 an important partner.
"For India also, the UK is an excellent partner because we started our negotiations on bilateral trade and investment agreement with the EU in 2007, hoping that we would be able to complete the negotiation by 2009-2010", he told ETV Bharat in an exclusive interview.
“The other issue that the UK has been keen is on climate change and the UK has noted with great appreciation and they are highly impressed. Dominic Raab appreciated the huge steps undertaken by India in the area of Renewable energy. When Raab is going to meet Modi tomorrow, both the leaders will discuss on the same”.
Also read: UK Foreign Secretary arrives in India for four-day visit
Addressing a press statement on Tuesday following the India-UK Ministerial dialogue, Jaishankar said, “Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab comes here at a very important time.
It is an important time because we all are looking at the post COVID world, even independently of the COVID India was looking at re-engineering many of its relationships more imaginatively and productively. We are also looking at the post-Brexit world from the perspective of the UK".
This is the right time to put our heads together to discuss where both the countries are, how the world looks and where do our interest converge and how can we work together, the minister reiterated.
“The visit of PM Boris Johnson in India is going to provide a fresh impetus to the bilateral partnership. So it is extremely helpful that Dominic Raab is here having this conversation with the Indian leadership and it will see a new phase in the bilateral partnership and will provide a very strong impulse in drawing up the 10 years partnership going forward”, further Sajjanhar explains.
Earlier today, both the leaders discussed opportunities in a post-COVID post-Brexit world for a stronger India-UK partnership and are working on forging a 10-year road map to further strengthen overall bilateral ties.
The UK is an enormously important partner of India. There are many facets of UK-global UK, Diaspora UK, economic UK, Tech innovative UK. If you look at the relationship that we reviewed today, it is already a big relationship but it has a very great potential of being scaled up very much more.
“We certainly think that the presence of PM Boris Johnson as the chief guest at Republic Day 2021 would be in a way symbolic of a new era of a new phase of our relationship. It will drive us to put in place a lot of mechanisms and platforms which would realize the kind of expectations that both the PM’s have of the relationship and which they have discussed with each other.
Apart from the bilateral relation, the UK is a very important partner for us whether it is on global issues or multilateral organizations. We certainly expect to work together on an international platform and global issues.
India has its vision of Indo-Pacific. But I will also recognize that other country too.
"There could be overlaps in Indian and UK visions of Indo-Pacific. There could be big overlaps and there could be a few nuances. it is a matter of satisfaction that there is growing recognition and acceptance of the idea of Indo-Pacific,” Jaishankar said.
Also read: India, UK discussed ways of expanding cooperation
Taking to Twitter, Jaishankar said, “Welcomed UK’s Indo-Pacific tilt. Will cooperate closely on global issues and in multilateralism organizations.
-
Welcomed UK’s Indo-Pacific tilt. Will cooperate closely on global issues and in multilateral organisations.
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) December 15, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">Welcomed UK’s Indo-Pacific tilt. Will cooperate closely on global issues and in multilateral organisations.
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) December 15, 2020Welcomed UK’s Indo-Pacific tilt. Will cooperate closely on global issues and in multilateral organisations.
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) December 15, 2020
Ex envoy Sajjanhar said India has enunciated its view of this Indo-Pacific strategy. "India wants a free open and inclusive Indo-Pacific and wants that it should be governed by the rule of law, there should be freedom of navigation. All disputes should be resolve by dialogue based on International laws as far as maritime issues are concerned", ex-envoy Sajjanhar.
The external affairs minister further said that India has a serious intent to take trade relationship with the UK forward.
“India certainly welcomes a greater interest and attention that the UK is devoting to Indo-Pacific. We certainly look forward to working with you in different manifestations,” he added.
UK’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also met Union Minister of Environment Prakash Javdekar and on 16th Dec, the FS is scheduled to meet Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal.
Raab will also travel to Bengaluru where he will meet Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on December 17. His visit is seen as significant.
