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Boris Johnson visit to give boost to India -UK Defence and Trade ties

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The United Kingdom Prime Minister was on a two day (21-22 April) visit to India .It was his first visit to India after becoming the Prime Minister of the United kingdom.

He first visited Gujarat and then came to Delhi to meet the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Gujarat Visit 

• During his Gujarat visit on 21 April he visited the Sabarmati Ashram  at Ahmedabad, 

• He  inaugurated the JCB plant in Vadodara set up by the British multinational company  JCB with an investment of 100 million pound. 

• He visited the Gujarat Biotech University being set up in the GIFT city near Gandhinagar in collaboration with the  University of Edinburgh of the United Kingdom.

•  He visited the Akshardham Temple in Gandhinagar .

His Visit to Delhi 

He met the prime minister Narendra Modi and both sides issued a joint statement on world issues like Afghnaistan ,Terrorism, climate change etc. .  There were discussions on the Ukraine issue where India reiterated its stand of a peaceful solution to the conflict .

Main Highlights of the Visit 

Defence 

• Both  the sides  agreed on  a new and expanded India-U.K. defence partnership where the U.K will provide  support for new Indian-designed and built fighter jets.
• The British prime minister also announced that the U.K. is creating an Open General Export Licence  specifically for  India to speed up the process for delivering U.K  defence equipment to India .
• This step of U.K can be seen in the context that India relies on Russia for the majority of its defence equipment and the Western countries want India to reduce its reliance on Russian arms . 

Trade 

• Both the countries have set a target to double the bilateral trade and service  to $100 billion by 2030.  The trade between the two countries in 2021-22 was $16 billion.

• In 2021, India was the UK’s 15th largest trading partner, and the UK is India’s 18th largest trading partner .

• They want to conclude a Free Trade Agreement(FTA) between the two countries by Diwali this year . 

• Both India and U.K launchd negotiation on FTA in January which will cover around 90% of the traded  goods and service  .

•  India has already signed such an FTA agreement with UAE and Australia this year.

Extremism and Terrorism 

Both the countries agreed to set up a Joint Task Force on extremism to counter extremist elements like pro-Khalistani groups active in U.K

Climate Change 

• The Global Innovation Partnership MoU was signed between the two countries.

• Through the Global Innovation Partnership, India and UK have agreed to co-finance up to £ 75 million to support the transfer and scale up of climate smart sustainable innovations to third countries.  

• The U.K government  has committed to invest $1 billion through its agency , British International Investment, into climate-related projects in India over the period of 2022-2026.

Nuclear Energy

Both the governments signed a MoU on cooperation on the Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership between India's department of atomic energy and the department of business, energy and industrial strategy of the U.K.

Other agreements 

Both the countries will start ministerial level dialogue on new and emerging  communication technology  such as 5G etc 

Co development of technology  on integrated electric propulsion for Navies of both the countries .