India’s External Affairs Minister visits UK

Tuesday 16th July 2019 10:32 EDT
 
 

India’s External Affairs Minister, Dr S Jaishankar visited the UK for the 19th Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting, hosted by the UK on 9-11 July 2019, and held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Britain and some other Commonwealth member countries. 

The CFAMM undertook a review of implementation of the mandates of CHOGM 2018 and held discussions on the CHOGM 2020 to be held at Kigali in June next year. During the event, Foreign Ministers adopted the 70th anniversary Affirmation. Agreed recommendations submitted by the Board of Governance after assiduously deliberating on two High-Level Group reports prepared in accordance with mandate given by the Heads at CHOGM 2015 were considered. The participation of India at Ministerial level was a reaffirmation of the importance that India attaches to the Commonwealth.

Dr Jaishankar congratulated the member countries on the 70th anniversary of Commonwealth and noted that India is well on the path of fulfilling all the commitments made by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at CHOGM 2018 much before the next CHOGM in 2020. He also called for fast-tracking of the process of re-admission of Maldives to the Commonwealth. 

The Minister had bilateral discussions with his UK counterpart, Foreign Secretary, Rt. Hon. Jeremy Hunt. The two ministers agreed to bring the entire gamut of India-UK bilateral relations into sharper focus. He thanked his UK counterpart for the British Government’s support to Prime Minister Modi’s initiative to build a global Coalition of Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI). He interacted with a large number of MPs, Lords and key representatives of think tanks and media to exchange views on a range of issues to find ways and means to further cement the multifaceted UK-India ties. 

He also held separate bilateral talks with Foreign Affairs Ministers of Australia and Canada, and State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh on the margins of CFAMM and covered a wide range of bilateral issues.


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