‘Renewed vigour in UK to engage with India’

By Rithika Siddhartha

BRITISH INDIAN ties are “under leveraged” for the benefit of both sides and there is a real fo­cus in the UK on the Indo-Pacific region, a senior minister said as he embarked on a visit to the south Asian country.

Lord Tariq Ahmad is the minis­ter for south Asia and the Com­monwealth at the Foreign, Com­monwealth & Development Office (FCDO). He began a visit to India this week, the fourth by a senior British minister in as many months to the country. Foreign secre­tary Dominic Raab was in India at the end of December; trade secre­tary Liz Truss visited in February and Alok Sharma, president for COP 26, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, was there just a few weeks ago.

In an interview with Eastern Eye on the eve of his travel to India, Lord Ahmad acknowledged the growing importance of India to the UK and the “renewed vigour” for engagement between the countries. “I fully acknowledge there is the change.

“Both India and the United Kingdom recognise the impor­tance of the relationship bilater­ally, but also in the wider context of the international community,” Lord Ahmad said last Friday (12).

“There is a real focus on the In­do Pacific region, where you see issues of growth, of opportunities. It presents a huge opportunity to strengthen the United Kingdom’s position and relationships with countries in that region.”

According to the minister, Brit­ain recognises India as an impor­tant partner, and the latter’s role on the global stage, where he ex­pressed the hope for more oppor­tunities for cooperation.

“With India now joining the UN Security Council from January, we’re looking forward to working with each other, specifically on matters of common interests.

“We recognise and welcome In­dia’s role within the multilateral sys­tem. As minister also of the United Nations and the Commonwealth, I am very much engaged on strength­ening our multilateral cooperation.”

“We’ve got huge opportunities. I’ve always felt very strongly that this relationship is under lever­aged for the benefit of both coun­tries, for both people.

“And the renewed engage­ments, the vigour… this isn’t just about saying how important India is. The fact is that we’re visiting, engaging and talking, and indeed, deliberating and cooperating on the whole raft of different issues.

“There’s a 10-year agreed plan going forward between two prime ministers who are both enthused about it. And as India’s prime minister Narendra Modi says, there is a real living bridge. Well, that living bridge is now very much been brought to life, and we want to engage and strengthen that bridge further.”

India’s prime minister is ex­pected to attend the G7 summit in the UK in June, with world leaders discussing the econo­my and climate change, among other issues. UK prime minis­ter Boris Johnson was sched­uled to visit India as a guest for the Republic Day parade in January, but was forced to de­fer it due to the coronavirus pandemic in the UK. On Tues­day (16), it emerged the prime minister will make that visit at the end of next month.

Lord Ahmad noted the “sub­stantive increase in our minis­terial engagement”.

“It’s a really transformation­al relationship,” he said.

He arrived in Delhi for talks with his counterparts in the Ministry of External Affairs, in­cluding foreign minister S Jais­hankar. Lord Ahmad revealed he was scheduled to visit Chandigarh in north India, Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Hy­derabad and Mumbai before he heads back to the UK.

It is likely both sides will discuss the farmers’ protests taking place just outside Delhi. There has been a discussion involving UK MPs and the matter was also raised in the Commons. India last week summoned British High Commis­sioner Alex Ellis after a discussion prompted by a petition that took place in the Houses of Parliament.

Lord Ahmad clarified the view of the UK government, saying re­solving the protest was a matter for India. “I’ve spoken directly to Gaitri Kumar, the High Commis­sioner of India with whom I have an excellent relationship,” he said.

“Our new high commissioner met foreign secretary Harsh Vard­han Shringla; there was a cordial meeting. India, of course, expressed its concerns over the debate.

“The (UK) parliamentary schedule, the nature of these de­bates is not something the (UK) government controls, whether they’re backbench debates, or in this case, the petition which sparked the debate. What we do control, as I mentioned to both high commissioner here in Lon­don, as did Alex Ellis, to foreign secretary Shringla was the impor­tance of the government message.

“Yes, of course, there is a lot of parliamentary interest (in the UK). And we have a robust parliamentary system, which challenges us as gov­ernment in terms of accountability.

“We are very clear when it comes to the issues of the kisan, the farmers’ protest, what we’ve seen from the Indian government is a response which has allowed peaceful protests to take place. There are unfortunate incidents which happen around protests. And in that regard, again, they’ve sought to handle that in a manner reflec­tive of what a democracy should do – allow for peaceful protest.

“Those who disrupt them, they should be dealt with justice, and according to the law of the land. But equally, we are clear this is an internal matter for the Govern­ment of India. And that point was both made clear and accepted.”