Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla held consultations with Permanent Under-Secretary at the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Philip R Barton in London on Wednesday on strengthening India-UK cooperation, and exchanged views on global and regional issues and the Covid-19 pandemic response.
At the meeting, Barton also extended an invitation for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the December Climate Ambition Summit in Glasgow, according to a statement from the British High Commission in New Delhi. The UK — as COP-26 President — the UN and France will host the virtual leader-level summit on the five-year anniversary of the Paris Agreement, in partnership with Chile (COP-25 President) and Italy (COP-26 partner).
Shringla also interacted with prominent CEOs and Parliamentarians at the India House highlighting India-UK’s strong trade and investment ties and positive engagement leading to an enhanced trade partnership.
“Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla held consultations with Permanent Under Secretary Sir Philip R Barton, FCDO, Government of UK on multi-faceted India-UK cooperation, exchanged views on global and regional issues, international terrorism and Covid-19 pandemic response,” Indian High Commission in the UK tweeted on Thursday.
Shringla arrived in London early this week, as part of his three-nation European tour covering France, Germany and the UK.
Strengthening ties
“The discussion centred around how the UK and India will work together on their shared ambitions. Future priorities are likely to include increasing trade, tackling climate change, science and technology and defence....They explored areas for the UK and India to collaborate in multilateral events, committing to work closely together through the UK’s G7 and COP presidencies and India’s G20 Presidency in 2022,” according to the statement.
“Today, Harsh V Shringla and I agreed that a strengthened UK-India partnership will be a force for good in the world. We will work together over the next decade to tackle global challenges, such as climate change and security,” Barton tweeted after the meeting.
Shringla also discussed with politicians and businesses in the UK the possibility of early harvest trade deals involving a few products that could pave the way for a preferential trade agreement of a full-fledged free trade agreement, sources said.
With the UK now officially out of the European Union, India can work out a separate deal with the country which some say would be easier to negotiate as it involves only one country. India’s free trade negotiations with the EU have been stuck for long because of disagreements over key issues of market access.