New Delhi, May 3 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a virtual Summit with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson on Tuesday and the two leaders will unveil a roadmap to elevate strategic ties and expand cooperation over the next decade.
India-UK Strategic Partnership since 2004 has been marked by regular high-level exchanges and growing convergences in diverse areas.
“The comprehensive Roadmap 2030 will pave the way for further expanding and deepening India-UK cooperation across five key areas, namely people-to-people relationship, trade and prosperity, defence and security, climate action and healthcare,” said the Ministry of External Affairs.
The two prime ministers will also discuss COVID-19 cooperation and the global efforts to fight the pandemic
“The Summit will be an important opportunity to elevate our multi-faceted strategic ties and enhance cooperation on regional and global issues of mutual interest,” the MEA said in a statement.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will also be in London from May 3-6 to participate in the G7 Foreign Ministers Meeting, at which India has been invited as a guest country.
He will thereafter undertake a bilateral visit to the UK.
Jaishankar and the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab are expected to discuss the Covid-19 challenge and security in the Indo-Pacific.
On Sunday, Raab told Sky News that the UK was “doing everything that our Indian friends need in their hour of need.â€
The first shipment of medical equipment, including 100 ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators from the UK arrived in New Delhi last Tuesday,
The UK’s Carrier Strike Group 2021, led by HMS Queen Elizabeth, will sail to India in the autumn on its maiden operational deployment, signalling the “Indo-Pacific tilt” in the country’s foreign policy.
As well as G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, US and UK, plus the EU) the UK government has also invited India, Australia, the Republic of Korea, South Africa, and the Chair and Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to join parts of this year’s meeting as guests.
Their attendance will bring broader experience and geographic representation, and demonstrates the importance of the Indo-Pacific region, said the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Cooperation office.
Raab earlier said that the G7 meeting is an opportunity to show how the world’s biggest democracies work together to ensure equitable access to vaccines, build back better from the pandemic and agree on action to tackle climate change.
On Friday, the UK announced it will host next year a summit with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) – a leading scientific coalition – to raise funds for vaccine research and development.
The G7 is looking forward to discussing advancing economic growth, human rights, food security, gender equality, and women’s and girls’ empowerment.
UNI
