'Are we doing enough?' Ex-deputy Dominic Raab asks Rishi Sunak to up his game on India ties
Counting more than one way through which India can prove to be an important friend, Raab said that the country's economy will overtake that of the Eurozone within 30 years
Dominic Raab. Reuters
UK’s former Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has asked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to up his game in developing closer ties with India.
Raab, the leader who once led Sunak’s leadership campaign and served as his Foreign Secretary before being forced to resign amid bullying allegations, said in Daily Telegraph that the UK government needs to do more to strengthen bilateral relations with India, especially since the country has a Prime Minister of Indian heritage.
He pointed to India’s particular comparative advantage in tech against the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s high-profile visit to the US this week during which mega deals were struck.
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“With the UK’s historic ties to India, and our first UK Prime Minister of Indian heritage, are we doing enough to maximise the rewards from this critical relationship,” Raab questioned.
The Tory Party MP further said, “With Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister, Britain remains uniquely placed to reap the dividends of a deeper friendship with India. To do so, we’ll need to up our game across the whole of government.”
Counting more than one way through which India can prove to be an important friend, Raab said that the country’s economy will overtake that of the Eurozone within 30 years. India offers enormous trade opportunities as investor sentiment warms with investment in roads, and a large well-educated local talent pool to draw from, he added.
He wrote, “When it comes to defence procurement, India is the world’s largest importer of military hardware. Again, Modi is in the market for joint ventures that allow tech transfer to help build up homegrown production. For the West, it is an opportunity to wean India off imports of Russian weapons.”
Acknowledging India’s own geopolitical compulsions, Raab admits India’s refusal to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in the same terms as the West is maddening.
“But as a leading member of the non-aligned group, India has far-reaching influence amongst developing countries. That could be useful to the West in areas of common interest, like China the case for cooperating more closely with India just gets stronger,” he explained.
With inputs from agencies
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