With the ongoing India-UK Free Trade Agreement sessions, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to visit India by the end of March. The high-level meeting will focus on increasing and improvising India-UK bilateral ties.
Most probably the scheduled date is on April 22nd; his past visits to India had to be postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
As per the official statement released by the British Prime Minister’s office, “Last month Johnson and Indian Prime Minister Modi had spoken over a phone and decided to meet in person. And the British leadership always looked at India as an important ally, and we hope to increase and strengthen this bond by continuing our business, trade, and security. We eagerly await to meet in person to assure this bilateral tie strengthens over the coming decades.”
As per PTI, Boris Johnson’s office confirmed that he was looking forward to this meeting in India with Narendra Modi. Last year in November, Modi and Johnson met during the Climate Summit COP 26 in Glasgow. Their bilateral discussions focussed majorly on the India-UK climate partnership and a plan of action for the same to be reviewed in 2030 was signed over a virtual meeting in the month of May 2021
The climate partnership between the two countries aims to increase bilateral trade by 2030 and is part of an Indo-Pacific foreign policy plan.
Borish Johnson recently this year in January, during the launch of the Free Trade Agreement said, “We keep Indian ties close to our heart as India is one of the fastest-growing economies and it massively benefits the business scenario in the UK in terms of hiring top executives, skilled labour, and consumers. The UK without a doubt has superb businesses and absolute expertise from financial services to renewable technology to world-famous Scotch whisky distilleries. We wish to bank on the many opportunities presented by the growing economies of the Indo-Pacific zone to strengthen our bonds on international platforms and make the benefits reach home.”
The Indo-UK Free Trade Agreement’s 3rd round of discussions will be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India later this month, during the British Prime Minister’s visit.