‘I pay tribute to Modi’s leadership’: Rishi Sunak hails PM forward of G20 Summit

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday praised his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi’s management over the past 12 months and stated “India is the right country at the right time to hold the G20 presidency”.

Sunak, the primary Indian-origin prime minister of Britain, stated the connection between the UK and India will outline the way forward for the 2 international locations, much more than it’s defining the current.

“This country’s scale, diversity and its extraordinary successes means India is the right country at the right time to hold the G20 presidency. I pay tribute to Prime Minister Modi’s leadership over the last year and it’s wonderful to see India showing such global leadership,” Sunak advised information company PTI in an interview days forward of the G20 summit in Delhi on September 9-10.

In the interview, the British Prime Minister additionally stated that each the international locations will work intently by India’s presidency of the G20 to handle the largest challenges the world is going through, from stabilising the worldwide economic system to coping with local weather change.

“2023 is a huge year for India, from all the different G20 meetings taking place all over the country to the Cricket World Cup next month — India is definitely home to the biggest global geopolitical events of the year!,” he stated.

The British premier, PM Modi, US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida and different G20 leaders are set to deliberate extensively on urgent world points together with penalties of the Ukraine struggle on the G20 summit.

India faces the uphill job of constructing a consensus on the textual content to check with the Ukraine disaster within the G20 leaders’ declaration.

Both Russia and China had agreed to the 2 paragraphs on the Ukraine battle in final 12 months’s Bali declaration, however they backtracked from it this 12 months, creating difficulties for India.

“India has taken on the presidency of the G20 at a time when the world is facing multiple challenges,” Sunak stated.

“In the last twelve months we’ve seen sharp rise in inflation and economic instability, we’ve witnessed the outbreak of conflict in Sudan, military coups in Niger and Gabon, and the ongoing repression of human rights in Afghanistan and elsewhere,” the 43-year-old chief of the Conservative Party added.

Sunak stated he’s wanting ahead to assembly Prime Minister Modi and deliberating on how collaboration between India and the UK helps in coping with varied world challenges.

“When I meet Prime Minister Modi again this week it will be an opportunity to speak about some of the global challenges we face, and the huge role that the UK and India have to play in addressing them,” he stated.

On the attainable final result of the G20 summit, Sunak stated, “We will have to wait and see what the summit outcomes will be. The UK certainly is here to support India’s efforts in achieving a successful summit.”

Sunak additionally talked in regards to the varied features of India-UK ties, together with cultural and people-to-people hyperlinks.

He stated what makes the UK-India relationship “truly unique” is the “Living Bridge” between the international locations which features a 1.6 million-strong Indian diaspora within the UK, and which connects “our people across culture, education, food, sport and more.”

“Recognising the close links and aligned interests of our countries, two years ago we agreed to the ‘2030 Roadmap’ which was an historic commitment to bring our countries, economies and people closer together.”

At the summit between Prime Minister Modi after which British PM Boris Johnson, the 2 sides had adopted a 10-year roadmap to increase ties in the important thing areas of commerce and economic system, defence and safety, local weather change and people-to-people connections, amongst others.

The India-UK relationship was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in the course of the bilateral digital summit in May 2021.

“We have already achieved so much under this roadmap, including the mutual recognition of higher education qualifications, new visa routes for young professionals, and billions in new investment deals including British firms like Tesco, Deliveroo and Revolut establishing or expanding their presence in India, creating thousands of new jobs,” Sunak stated.

On defence and strategic ties, he stated the UK Navy, Army and Air Force have all carried out workout routines with their Indian counterparts, growing “our ability to work together to tackle shared threats.” In the areas of science and expertise, Sunak stated, each side are making important progress.

“As science and technology superpowers, shared UK-India expertise is pushing the boundaries of innovation for global good,” he stated.

“Together, we delivered a Covid-19 vaccine; researched at Oxford University with UK Government financial support, developed by AstraZeneca, and manufactured at scale by India’s Serum Institute,” he stated.

“From preventing pandemics to unravelling the human genome the UK and India are working together to tackle the challenges of tomorrow, today,” he added.

Sunak additionally talked about the India-UK commerce engagement and cooperation within the Indo-Pacific.

“India is already on track to be the third largest economy in the world within ten years. That is why India is such an important partner in this region and more generally,” he stated.

“I absolutely see more for the UK and India to do together in the Indo-Pacific, building on the impressive cooperation that has already taken place across trade, defence and security under the 2030 Roadmap,” the British prime minister stated.

Sunak additionally talked about Britain’s 2021 overseas coverage technique, which underlined the strategic significance of the Indo-Pacific to the UK and the world.

“That’s something we have confirmed this year when we published a refreshed version of the policy – our commitment to the Indo-Pacific isn’t going anywhere, just as this region isn’t going anywhere,” he stated.

With inputs from PTI

Edited By:

Manisha Pandey

Published On:

Sep 7, 2023