UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab meets PM Narendra Modi, discusses facets of strategic partnership

NEW DELHI: UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, on Wednesday, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi where the two held discussions covering various facets of the India-UK partnership, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.

"UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Discussions covered various facets of our strategic partnership," read a tweet from Anurag Srivastava, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.

UK Foreign Secretary @DominicRaab called on PM @narendramodi.
Discussions covered various facets of our strategic partnership. pic.twitter.com/WwQMAblrmF

— Anurag Srivastava (@MEAIndia) December 16, 2020

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.