New Delhi: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has landed in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad this morning. He is on a two-day visit to India. He will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow. On their meeting agenda discussion on trade and defence is on priority among other issues.
According to news agency Reuters report, Johnson said he was ready to offer more visas to India. In return, for this year clinching a free-trade deal that could boost annual bilateral trade by billions of pounds.
Speaking on his way to India with reporters, Johnson gave a signal of him being ready to accommodate on an issue that could have stalled the talks. “I have always been in favour of talented people coming to this country,” Johnson told reporters. “We are short to the tune of hundreds of thousands of people in our economy and we need to have a progressive approach and we will.”
He is likely to meet businessman Gautam Adani. Today he will be flying to Vadodara and pay a visit at the heavy machine firm JCB. From there, he will go to Gandhinagar’s Gujarat International Finance Tec-City or GIFT City. He will go to Delhi in the evening.
The UK speaking of India’s stance on Russian invasion has said that it would not look to “lecture” India over its neutral stance in the UN on the Ukraine war or India’s decision to increase Russian oil imports.
News agency PTI, on the Ukraine crisis, cited comments by British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss during her visit to India last month. She said that Johnson is also going to follow the same line and will not lecture India on its response to the Russian invasion. He will set out the UK’s perspective on it and listen to New Delhi’s views.
Johnson’s visit might boost up the proposed free-trade agreement between India and the UK. It can also boost cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and enhance defence ties. The situation in the Indo-Pacific will be on major topic of discussion between the two PMs, as the UK is strongly opposed to any kind of coercion in the region.
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