UK, India can make the world safer, says Truss

UK foreign minister Elizabeth Truss has said that her country and India believe in freedom and democracy and can make the world safer and prosperous.

She was speaking in Mumbai at a reception held on the HMS Defender where industrialists from the UK and India met.

"Countries like the UK and India believe in freedom and democracy and can make the world safer and prosperous. That is the mission of UK and India too," she said, adding that the two countries were working on a new trade deal in economy, defence, trade and climate.

"India is the second-largest investor in the UK and I want to see more UK investment in India. The UK has the third-highest number of unicorns while India has the third-highest number of startups," Truss said.

"If we bring our resources and assets together, we can do much more. I met the Indian finance minister and foreign minister and talked about how to deepen our partnership in areas like technology."

The UK-India bilateral trade was over £18bn in 2020, supporting nearly half a million jobs in each other's economies, an official from the media department of the British High Commissioner said.

The official said the prime ministers of the two nations have set a target to double the value of UK-India trade by 2030, and have also declared their shared intent to begin negotiations on a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) by the end of this year.

India's Modi will attend the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, in a major boost for the conference that has already been snubbed by key world leaders.

More than 120 world leaders are expected to attend the biggest climate summit since the 2015 Paris talks on November 1-2.