New Delhi: The two-day visit of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to India on Thursday aims at boosting the long-term ties between the countries, with special focus on defence, security and trade, sources said.
According to people familiar with the development, the primary focus of Johnson’s talks with PM Narendra Modi in New Delhi will be on the situation in Indo-Pacific.
Notably, Johnson will begin his two-day visit from Ahmedabad where he will meet some prominent business leaders, following which he will attend a ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan and then a wreath-laying occasion at the Samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi on Friday.
As per the sources, the talks between the two leaders are expected to further boost the trade relations between the two countries.
On the defence front, the people said UK is ready to extend its cooperation in realising PM Modi’s dream of making India a hub of defence manufacturing.
According to the sources, although the talks will take place amid the ongoing crisis between Russia and Ukraine, they will mainly stress on bolstering bilateral ties between the countries.
On the Ukraine crisis, they said Johnson is not going to lecture India on its response to the Russian invasion and that he would talk about UK's perspective and listen to India’s views on the matter.
The UK is not in the business of telling other countries what to do, said one of the sources, adding that the long-term consequences of the Russian attack could be discussed.
"Both sides understand each other's position," the person said.
Talking about defence production, UK is ready for technology transfer to realise Modi's aim of indigenisation in defence manufacturing, the sources said.
They further added that the ‘people-to-people’ connection is a ‘living bridge’ between the two countries and India tops the chart for the UK in terms of issuance of visas to skilled immigrants. The share of skilled Indians getting visas is around 40 per cent, they said.
It is to be noted that Johnson and Modi agreed on a UK-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, elevating the bilateral ties, during the virtual summit between the two sides in May last year.
At the summit, UK and India adopted a 10-year roadmap to expand the bilateral ties in major areas of trade and economy, defence and security, climate change and people-to-people connections, among others.