New Delhi, June 4 (IANS) Hailing ties between India and the UK, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar said on Thursday that the two nations are well positioned to build a new “future-oriented and mutually beneficial partnership.”
In his opening remarks ahead of his meeting with visiting UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper in New Delhi on Thursday, EAM Jaishankar highlighted the remarkable developments between India-UK ties, which included UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to India in October last year and PM Narendra Modi’s visit to the UK in July last year.Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, India’s High Commissioner to UK, P Kumaran and other officials were also present during the meeting.”Your presence is of course today both reaffirmation of our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and also an opportunity to review its progress. Now, our relationship has moved from being a historical and perhaps cultural connection today to a forward-looking highway of shared economic ambitions and high technology,” EAM Jaishankar said.”Our bilateral relations really saw some remarkable developments last year marked by a two-way visits of Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Starmer within months of each other. With the signing of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the adoption of our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that of the Defence Industrial Roadmap as well,” he added.EAM Jaishankar stated that he and Cooper will discuss the India UK Vision 2035 under all five pillars of growth, technology and innovation, defence and security, energy and education.”We are today well positioned to build a new future-oriented and mutually beneficial partnership. The CETA of course addresses many concerns which countries have including ours about creating resilient supply chains and addressing concerns about trade, energy, food and economic security. Today’s meeting will be an opportunity to discuss the India UK Vision 2035 under all the five pillars of growth, technology and innovation, defence and security, climate and clean energy as well as education,” he mentioned.Highlighting the progress made on India UK Vision 2035, EAM Jaishankar added, “I would like to take the opportunity to recognise some of the significant progress recently on the Vision 2035 which includes the signing of the CETA, the UK India UK technology security initiative, the adoption of the defense industrial roadmap, the climate technology startup fund, the offshore wind energy task force, and of course the coming to India of universities from the UK of which the most recent is the University of Liverpool whose decision was announced today.”aklas
