India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla was in the UK for a two-day visit on last Friday to discuss global issues and the implementation of ‘Roadmap 2030’.
The Roadmap 2030 is a 10-year plan that was unveiled on 14 May 2021 by PM Modi and PM Johnson virtually, for bilateral partnership and a Foreign Trade Agreement in the future. Key areas include trade and economy, climate change defence and security among others.
Mr Shringla held meetings on Friday with his counterpart Lord Tariq Ahmad, Minister of South Asia in the Foreign Office, Philip Barton, the Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) on Friday. He also met David Quarrey, Boris Johnson’s International Affairs Adviser and Deputy National Security Adviser, Jo Johnson and a few relevant think tanks like IISS.
After the meeting Lord Ahmad tweeted, "Glad to meet @harshvshringla again today. We last met in Delhi a pleasure to be able to host this time in London. We discussed the continued growth of the - relationship and how, together, the UK and India can provide leadership on global issues and be a force for good.”
Discussions with various people encompassed many issues. With PM Johnson’s upcoming visit possibly in September for the Health Summit in India, and India’s Presidentship in the Security Council in August, Secretary Shingla discussed India’s possible permanent seat in the Security Council and the prospect of UK backing it.
He said “We have three major events that we plan. One is around maritime security, which would be at the summit level. The second would be on peacekeeping, where we would introduce a new peacekeeping app called unite aware, which will provide UN peacekeepers with a greater safety and security and awareness of the area in which they operate. So thereby increasing their efficiency and the third will be on counterterrorism... UK and India both have common interests. And it is reflected also in our joint statement that we just issued about combating counterterrorism together taking appropriate measures.
“There was also discussion on how UK is supportive of our efforts to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council. We expressed the need for support to India and its aspiration to become a permanent member.”
Mr Shringla also spoke about India’s ongoing relationship with the UK and US and how the world came forward to help India during the second wave of Covid as a reciprocity of India’s assistance with vaccination and Covid drugs during the pandemic.
His discussions also included topics such as India’s 75th Independence Day, climate change, and Prime Minister’s Modi’s upcoming visit to Glasgow during COP26.
Matters of security with growing Taliban unrest in Afghanistan and several ongoing extraditions to India from the UK, especially the cases of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and deportation of Jayesh Patel were highlighted. He condemned the death of photo journalist Danish Siddiqui in Kandahar.
He also discussed matters such as vaccine passports, vaccination hesitancy and Europe’s stand on not letting people in, especially those who have taken the Indian manufactured Astra Zeneca.
While India is expecting several ministerial visits from the UK in the coming few months, including that of Trade Secretary Liz Truss before Mr Johnson, UK will see the visit of Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman towards end of August.
(More details on page 1)
