UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab in a joint press conference with foreign minister S Jaishankar said that his country wants to “deepen economic partnership with India” while asserting the two countries shared issues related to terrorism, maritime security including piracy in the western Indian ocean.
“We look forward to taking the spot in 2021 including the UK’s presidency of G-7 and also our presidency of UN Climate Change Conference,” Dominic Raab said, adding,”We welcome India’s return to UN Security Council.”
The UK foreign secretary said he was pleased that PM Boris Johnson has invited PM Modi to join the G-7 summit to be held in the UK next year while informing that the UK PM had accepted PM Modi’s offer of attending India’s Republic Day celebrations on January 26 which he said was a “great honour”.
India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar said that that the focus between the two countries is to take the “ties to a higher level”.
“We focused on five broad themes – connecting people, trade and prosperity, defence & security, climate change and health,” Jaishankar said while stating that “India has its vision of Indo-Pacific.”
“It is a matter of satisfaction that there is today a growing recognition and acceptance of the idea of Indo-Pacific,” India’s foreign minister said.
The external affairs minister(EAM) said foreign secretary Dominic Raab’s visit comes at a very important time since the UK is at looking at a “post-Brexit world”.
On asked about the “free trade agreement with UK & India not signing RCEP“, the EAM said: “I think it is like comparing apples & oranges. UK wasn’t part of the RCEP…our experiences on RCEP can’t carry over to discussion with the UK. There’s a serious intent to take trade relationship forward.”
The EAM said the presence of PM Boris Johnson as the chief guest at Republic Day would be in a way “symbolic of a new era, a new phase of our relationship.”
This article is auto-generated by Algorithm Source: www.wionews.com
