As Boris Johnson met with Narendra Modi on Friday morning, he joked about the enthusiastic welcome he received in the home state of Indian Prime Minister Gujarat, with huge placards with the British leader’s face and crowds waving a flag: “I would not necessarily get this everywhere around the world.”
It was a typical self-deprecating reference to the fact that even 4,000 miles from home he failed to escape Partygate.
When planning this long-delayed trip, Johnson’s refreshed Downing Street team hoped it would demonstrate his commitment to serious investment, post-Brexit and green energy issues.
But the besieged prime ministers seldom find solace in their problems traveling abroad, and Johnson was filled with questions about the collapse of his authority in Westminster.
Until Thursday afternoon, when he was interviewed in the scorching sun of Gujarat by a number of television operators, he was visibly irritable, at one point turning the clock to his watch and urging Sky’s Beth Rigby to stick to questions about the nature of the visit to India.
In fact, the victories from the visit were relatively modest. Johnson welcomed the prospects for a free trade agreement, which the Indian government really wants to pursue. Modi’s imprimatur could help speed up the process, but talks have been under way since January, following a change in Indian policy. It has already signed recent agreements with the UAE and Australia.
There are also questions about the extent to which the United Kingdom may be willing to link visas to any transaction. Johnson seems to have signaled that he would welcome more skilled Indian immigration as part of an agreement that reverses the UK’s longstanding stance.
Government sources say he is only referring to “intercompany transfers” that allow companies to attract employees abroad.
Johnson also highlighted cooperation on green technologies, including a memorandum of understanding on wind energy, which Indian and British companies are expected to co-operate with. There was also the usual announcement of new investment projects, although some were particularly small, with one creating only 15 jobs (although, according to Downing Street, a total of 11,000).
In addition, tangible results from the two-day tour were difficult to identify, raising the question of why India and why now, other than the hope of generating some optimistic headlines for a post-Brexit trade deal.
Johnson has repeatedly insisted that the United Kingdom and India are fellow democracies ready to take on autocratic regimes (not to mention China or Russia by name). Human rights activists warn that while it is indeed democratically elected, Modi’s government is becoming increasingly autocratic – including repressive measures against journalists and activists. Johnson was left alone at his last press conference in Delhi because Modi himself had not given one in years.
At the same time, the trip was filled with tensions over deepening the UK’s cooperation with a country whose position is radically different on the main foreign policy issue of the day: Ukraine.
Downing Street has made it clear in advance that Johnson has no illusions about influencing Modi, who recently entertained Moscow Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Delhi – although the two discussed the conflict at length.
The controversy inherent in the relationship was evident in a story published in the Times of India during the visit, not denied by No. 10, that the United Kingdom requested that a US-made Chinook helicopter be used to transport Johnson to visit the JCB plant. , instead of the Russian alternative. India buys much of its defense equipment from Russia.
One of the few solid statements from the visit was that the United Kingdom will liberalize the export of defense equipment to India by issuing a universal license so that individual treaties are subject to less control.
It was intended as a signal of defense co-operation as part of Johnson’s “Indo-Pacific tilt” towards a region he described in his closing press conference as “the geopolitical center of the world”.
But that was called into question by a report by the Russian Defense Brain Trust on Friday, which warned that Russia was laundering Western weapons components through India.
Although Johnson’s reception in India was certainly warm, his inability to escape his grief was highlighted when, while entertaining business leaders in his latest engagement in Delhi, ITV reported that the next batch of fines from the party fell into the inboxes.
Johnson left his lieutenants at home exposed to the full force of the backpack rage over Partygate and returned with a little to show. And the welcome as it flies back to London is unlikely to be anything but cool.
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