UK, India need very clear roadmap to strengthen ties, says High Commissioner Gaitri Kumar
Jul 10, 2020
By Sahil Pandey/ Joymala Bagchi
New Delhi [India], July 10 : Indian High Commissioner to UK Gaitri Issar Kumar on Friday emphasised that UK-India relations need a 'very clear roadmap' to strengthen the relationship further, and termed it to be her 'top priority'.
"A very clear road map is needed to be made, having just arrived here this is my priority -- identifying the convergences and reassessing the priorities," Kumar said while participating in a panel discussion at the India Global Week 2020.
The High Commissioner mentioned that the whole world is looking at a new set of geopolitics with a post-COVID recovery and revival agenda.
"We had Brexit, we also have a number of countries in Europe looking at reassuring after offshoring lot of their manufacturing. The situation throws up a number of challenges and exciting new opportunities," Kumar said.
Yesterday during his inaugural speech at the India Global Week 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about India's talent and country's interest in working with the rest of the world on developing advanced technology and joining forces on the research front.
Addressing the unprecedented pandemic circumstances, Kumar said that India is looking forward to economic recovery.
"In the India- UK context, we have an excellent institutional mechanisms like the JetCO and the EFD which involves government to government and business to business engagement," Kumar said.
"We have to be prepared for future health emergencies," she added.
While participating in the discussion, Liz Truss, Secretary of State for International Trade, UK government said, "At JetCO 2020, we will be looking at removing barriers to trade between the two countries."
In 2019 UK Foreign Affairs Committee report 'Building Bridges: Reawakening UK-India ties' - highlighted a number of areas of huge potential for the partnership between India and the UK to grow.
Later, in the discuss Gaitri Kumar said, "The 1.6 million strong Indian diaspora seems to be catalysing every sector in the UK."
The session explored progress that has been made across trade and investment while focusing on the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Ways for revival of the subsequent economic downturn which will inject new impetus into the relationship between countries were also discussed.
The three-day virtual conference themed 'BeTheRevival: India and a Better New World' India Global Week 2020 aims to have 5000 global participants from 30 nations being addressed by 250 global speakers across 75 sessions.
