Boris Johnson questioned the prospects for a negotiated peace in Ukraine, comparing it to holding talks with a crocodile while flying to India to discuss the conflict with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Speaking on a plane bound for India, where he will seek to deepen trade ties, as well as discussing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the prime minister suggested that it would now be impossible for Vladimir Zelensky’s government to trust Russia in any negotiations. .
“I think it is very difficult to see how Ukrainians can negotiate with them [Russian president Vladimir] Putin now, given his apparent lack of good faith and his strategy, which is obvious, is to try to absorb and seize as much of Ukraine as possible and then perhaps hold some kind of negotiating force, or “even launch another attack on Kyiv,” he said.
“I really don’t see how Ukrainians can easily sit down and come to some kind of accommodation,” he added. “How can you negotiate with a crocodile when it has your feet in its jaws?”
Instead, Johnson said NATO would “continue with the strategy” of supplying Ukraine with weapons to defend itself.
He suggested that President Zelensky had what he called a “rather maximalist position”, wanting to see Russian troops expelled from their current positions in Donetsk and Luhansk, adding that “they are not so maximalist about Crimea”. .
Johnson downplayed the prospect that he could persuade Modi to solidify India’s position on Ukraine – although he said he would insist on the importance of giving up what he called “Putin’s hydrocarbons”.
India, which buys military equipment from Russia, abstained on a UN proposal condemning Putin’s actions in Ukraine in early March.
“I have already talked to Narendra Modi about Ukraine and in fact the Indians condemned what happened in Bucha, they were quite categorical in what they said,” said the prime minister. “But the United Kingdom in particular needs to recognize that India has a historical relationship with Russia, I think we need to live with that.
While traveling to Gujarat and New Delhi, Downing Street announced bilateral investments of £ 1 billion, claiming they would create up to 11,000 jobs in the UK. However, the investment includes a series of small-scale projects, the smallest of which, by Qure AI Technologies, will create only 15 jobs. The largest, electric bus company Switch Mobility, will create 4,000 jobs “in the UK and India”.
Number 10 also highlighted an agreement that would allow OneWeb, a tax-backed space company, to launch its satellites from India.
He said: “As I arrive in India today, I see great opportunities for what our two great nations can achieve together. From next-generation 5G telecommunications and AI to new partnerships in health research and renewable energy – the UK and India are world leaders.
The government outlined plans for a “Indo-Pacific tilt” in UK foreign policy in its Strategic Defense Review last year; but the approach has been called into question since Russia began its devastating invasion of Europe.
But Johnson insisted: “I’m pretty clear about that: it’s good for us to do it. India is our great partner. “
Speaking before the trip, Johnson’s spokesman said: “We see our role in India not as striving to give lectures and pointing fingers, but to engage with them constructively, as we have done in recent years – to talk to them about potential alternatives, for things like energy, for things like security and defense, so that we can expand the coalition of partners who are moving away from any other dependence on Russia. “
Amid the ongoing scandal with Partygate, number 10 wants to demonstrate that the prime minister is focused on bread and butter issues, including advancing economic interests and the UK’s security interests abroad.
He will visit business and cultural sites during the two-day tour, as well as hold bilateral talks with Modi.
The two nations are working to reach a free trade agreement by the end of 2022, with two rounds of talks already under way and another next week.
In the past, hopes for a trade agreement have been dashed by India’s desire for a more liberal visa regime that would allow its citizens to enter the United Kingdom.
A Johnson spokesman said immigration was not included in trade negotiations as a standard – but did not rule out the UK reaching some sort of agreement on the issue.
“Negotiators can examine the provisions on business mobility as part of ongoing talks, but any agreement must be in line with the point-based immigration system and will obviously be subject to cabinet approval,” he said.
Theresa May’s visit to India in 2016 was widely seen as a diplomatic setback after she rejected calls for more immigration from India to the United Kingdom.
Johnson is under pressure to secure post-Brexit free trade agreements after hopes of a quick deal with the United States faded, with Joe Biden focusing elsewhere.
OneWeb, which was rescued by a UK taxpayer with the enthusiastic support of former Johnson adviser Dominique Cummings, turned to Elon Musk’s SpaceX for help after the Russian invasion of Ukraine shut down its previous launch site in Kazakhstan.
The UK government took a £ 400 million stake in OneWeb in July 2020, investing to save the business from bankruptcy.
Add Comment