British PM Johnson to make 'in-person' visit to India soon

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to soon make an "in-person" visit to India soon, a visit that will focus on strengthening ties even as the UK leaves European Union. 

Acting British High Commissioner to India Jan Thompson in said, "We are expecting UK Foreign secretary Dominic Raab will be paying an in-person visit to India in the next few months. Beyond that PM Boris Johnson is very very keen to come to India. So we hope over the next few months we will visits, by both FS Raab and PM Johnson"

The visit could be the first in-person visit, given high-level physical visits have been suspended globally due to COVID pandemic. Amid the pandemic, Indian Prime Minister has had five virtual summits starting with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morison, EU leadership, Sri Lankan PM Mahinda Rajapaksa, Denmark PM 

Asked on extradition of Vijay Mallya, the acting British High Commissioner said, "Further legal issue that needs resolution before we will be in a position to extradite him....Extradition can't take place unless that particular legal issue can be resolved...we are trying to resolve the issue as quickly as we can."

The United Kingdom has invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Climate Ambition summit that will take place in December. India's foreign secretary Harsh Shringla was in London a few weeks ago as part of his European tour during which cooperation in the Indo Pacific was discussed.