British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will journey to India on the finish of April in what could be his first main abroad go to following Brexit, his workplace mentioned on Tuesday.
Johnson was compelled to cancel his journey to India because the chief visitor of the Republic Day celebrations in January following a surge in Covid-19 instances within the UK, and had then promised to go to India earlier than the G-7 summit within the UK in June. He has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G-7 summit.
Johnson’s workplace made an announcement of his India journey because it unveiled the “Integrated Review” of its safety, defence,
India seems about 15 instances within the evaluation doc, the place it has been positioned within the context of the “deeper engagement” with the Indo-Pacific.
Under the sub-head “Indo-Pacific”, the Integrated Review mentioned, “We will pursue deeper engagement in the Indo-Pacific in support of shared prosperity and regional stability, with stronger diplomatic and trading ties. This approach recognises the importance of powers in the region such as China, India and Japan and also extends to others including South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines.”
On China, the Integrated Review has a measured and nuanced method and tone. “We will do more to adapt to China’s growing impact on many aspects of our lives as it becomes more powerful in the world.”
“We will invest in enhanced China facing capabilities, through which we will develop a better understanding of China and its people, while improving our ability to respond to the systemic challenge that it poses to our security, prosperity and values – and those of our allies and partners. We will continue to pursue a positive trade and investment relationship with China, while ensuring our national security and values are protected. We will also cooperate with China in tackling transnational challenges such as climate change,” it mentioned.
Stressing that the UK-India relationship is “already strong”, it mentioned that “over the next ten years, we seek transformation in our cooperation across the full range of our shared interests”.
“India – as the largest democracy in the world – is an international actor of growing importance,” the Review doc mentioned.
As Commonwealth nations, it mentioned, “we have strong cultural links: 1.5 million British nationals are of Indian origin; and we enjoy broad collaboration across the education sector”.
It mentioned commerce between the UK and India greater than doubled between 2007 and 2019, funding relationship helps over half one million jobs in one another’s economies, and the UK is India’s second-biggest analysis companion.
“The ability to strike our own trade deals will allow us to grow our economic relationship further, including through increased bilateral investment flows. Our vision is for re-energised trade and investment, rooted in S&T and supporting levelling up in the UK and India alike; enhanced defence cooperation that brings a more secure Indian Ocean Region, building on the existing biannual Ministerial Defence Dialogues; and UK-India leadership to tackle global challenges like climate change, clean energy and global health.”
“We will take a major step towards achieving this vision in 2021 when we launch our Enhanced Trade Partnership with India as a roadmap to a potential comprehensive trade deal. This relationship will be underpinned by our largest single country diplomatic network anywhere in the world, with more than 800 staff spread across eleven posts,” it mentioned.
It additionally mentioned that “agreeing an Enhanced Trade Partnership with India” shall be a “stepping stone towards a comprehensive trade deal”.
It underlined “our force for good agenda, promoting open societies and protecting public goods through conflict prevention, strong rule of law, respect for human rights and media freedoms, girls’ education and humanitarian response. We will also continue to deepen our people-to-people links, including through bilateral cultural seasons with Japan, Australia and India.”
Downing Street mentioned Johnson will announce the creation of two new cross-government hubs — “a Situation Centre, based in the Cabinet Office, which will build on the lessons of the Covid pandemic to improve our use of data to anticipate and respond to future crises”.
“A Counter-Terrorism Operations Centre, which will significantly improve our ability to thwart terrorists, while also dealing with the actions of hostile states. It will bring together CT police, the intelligence agencies and the criminal justice system to coordinate the Government’s expertise and resources in a state-of-the-art facility to improve our speed of response to terrorist incidents,” it mentioned.
In an op-ed printed in The Times, Johnson wrote about India’s manufacturing capability for Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.
“That vaccine is safe and works extremely well, and now, only six months later, it is being made in multiple places from India to the US, as well as Britain, and it is being used around the world.”
