PM Modi meets UK Foreign Secy Raab, discusses post-Brexit ties
Dec 16, 2020
New Delhi [India], December 16 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Wednesday where he discussed the India-UK partnership in the post-Covid and post-Brexit world.
PM Modi termed the interaction with Raab as "excellent" adding that he looked forward to having Prime Minister Boris Johnson attend the Republic Day ceremony next year as the chief guest.
"Excellent meeting with @DominicRaab, UK Secretary of State of @FCDOGovUK (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office). Discussed the vast potential of the India-UK partnership in the post-COVID, post-BREXIT world. Looking forward to next month's visit by PM @BorisJohnson as Chief Guest at our Republic Day celebrations," the Prime Minister wrote on Twitter.
Raab also met with the Union Minister for Education, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.
On Tuesday, Raab met Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar where he said that the UK will be working closely with India to tackle climate change.
Earlier on Tuesday, the UK foreign secretary also met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar where the two discussed opportunities in a post-Covid post-Brexit world for a stronger India-UK partnership.
He said that the UK and India are committed to building a stronger defence partnership between the two countries which would help to tackle shared issues like terrorism, maritime security and privacy.
"We want to deepen our economic partnership -- we already have a strong trade relationship. In the year before the pandemic hit, bilateral trade between India and the UK grew at a vibrant 11 per cent. Now what we want to do is to take that to another level -- working towards a green and enhanced trade partnership," Raab said at a joint statement following the India-UK ministerial dialogue.
He added, "We are committed to building a stronger defence and security partnership with our Indian friends that will help us tackle shared issues of concerns whether it is terrorism, maritime security and including piracy in the Western Indian Ocean."
The UK Foreign Secretary said that the two countries "want to" work together in order to ensure secure telecom and 5G networks.
The External Affairs Ministry said that Raab's visit will pave the way for further strengthening of the partnership across trade, defence, climate, migration and mobility, education, and health sectors in the post-Covid, post-Brexit context.
