- Britain offers faster delivery of defense items to India
- Britain wants to conclude a free trade agreement with India by the end of the year
NEW DELHI, April 22 (Reuters) – Britain and India agreed on Friday to boost defense and business co-operation during a visit to New Delhi by Boris Johnson, who said the bilateral free trade agreement could be concluded by October.
During his first visit to the Indian capital as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Johnson discussed with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi ways to strengthen security ties with India, which buys more than half of its military hardware from Russia.
Britain hopes its proposal for closer security ties with the West will encourage India to reduce its defense dependence on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”.
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“We had wonderful conversations that strengthened our relationship in every way,” Johnson said at a joint briefing with Modi on the last day of his two-day trip.
“We have reached an agreement on a new and expanded partnership in defense and security, a decade-long commitment that will not only build stronger ties between us, but also support your Make in India goal,” he said, referring to Modi’s pressure. for domestic production.
Johnson said negotiators on both sides are expected to complete the free trade deal by the end of this year.
“We are telling our negotiators to do it by Diwali in October. This could double our trade and investment by the end of the decade,” he said.
Britain’s efforts to strengthen security ties followed an attempt last month by the United States to distance India from Russia with its own proposal for more defense and energy sales, after President Joe Biden called India “somewhat unstable” in its actions against Russia. Read more
India has abstained from a UN vote condemning the invasion and has not imposed sanctions on Moscow in a position that has sparked a recent wave of diplomatic activity, such as visits by Russian and Chinese foreign ministers.
Johnson said Britain would also support India’s goal of building its own warplanes to reduce expensive imports of military equipment. India already has a combination of Russian, British and French fighters.
The Indian government last year signed a contract for 480 billion rupees ($ 6.28 billion) of the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd for 83 Tejas light fighter jets, for delivery from around 2023.
Johnson said Britain was also creating an Indian-specific open common export license to reduce delivery times for defense items. Currently, only the European Union and the United States have such licenses.
The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke during an interview with a TV cameraman at the Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple in Gandinagar, India, April 21, 2022. Ben Stansall / Poole via REUTERS
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While Britain’s offer of greater security co-operation is welcome, India will remain relying on Russian military equipment, in part because it is cheaper, said Mohan Guruswami, director of the Center for Political Alternatives in New Delhi.
“Russia’s offer to India is always ‘Our closet is open,’ (but) Britain doesn’t offer India everything it wants, and what it makes available is usually more expensive,” he said.
Johnson said the free trade agreement would help India sell more rice and textiles to Britain.
British trade with India in 2019 is worth 23 billion pounds (29.93 billion dollars), according to British data.
But with the world’s second-largest population of nearly 1.4 billion, India offers a huge array of potential customers.
Any trade deal is likely to depend on easing the rules and reducing fees for Indian students and professionals who go to the UK.
Johnson has signaled that he is ready to be more lenient on the issue, adding that Britain faces a shortage of hundreds of thousands of workers, especially in sectors such as information technology.
Johnson said that during his trip to India, he felt like the Indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar, as hundreds of people lined the streets and dozens of billboards depicted him.
“I had an amazing reception,” he said. “My face was everywhere.”
The reception contrasts with Johnson’s problems at home, where he is under political pressure to break his own blockade rules during the pandemic.
(1 $ = 0.7685 pounds)
(1 dollar = 76.4125 Indian rupees)
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Additional reports by Rama Venkat and Nalur Seturaman in Bengaluru; Edited by Clarence Fernandez and Susan Fenton
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