Boris Johnson has been accused of breaking his promise to do everything possible to ensure that Putin “fails” in Ukraine in his desire for a post-Brexit trade deal with India.
Opposition parties erupted after the prime minister admitted that he had not tried to persuade India to relinquish its neutral stance on Russia – while pushing for an agreement accelerator.
Last month, No. 10 insisted it was pressuring “all world leaders” to join the global push to ensure that Ukraine’s misery “cannot continue and that Putin fails at what he is trying to do.” .
But in New Delhi, after talks between Mr Johnson and Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, both sides agreed that no pressure was being applied to India’s alliance with Moscow.
It abstained in successive UN votes to condemn Russia, India’s largest arms supplier, and continues to buy oil from Moscow.
“Once again, the prime minister is not defending the UK’s interests in international trade negotiations,” said Nick Thomas-Simonds, Labor’s shadow trade secretary.
“Not even raising the issue of India’s neutrality over Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine is a failure of the leadership, which shows that the prime minister is too distracted by his attempts to save his own skin to do his job properly. .
Leila Moran, Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokeswoman, said: “This must be a matter of principle for the United Kingdom – unfortunately Johnson seems so desperate to make a lucrative trade deal that he is silent.
“We need to stand on the world stage and say that the United Kingdom expects any country that seeks greater access to our market to avoid circumventing sanctions against Russia.
Criticism came when Mr Johnson was confronted with a report from the Royal United Services Institute warning that India was a major route to arms smuggling under Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Hours earlier, he announced that the United Kingdom would ease the rules on arms exports to India by issuing an open common export license.
Mr. Johnson spoke with his colleague for about 45 minutes at the end of his two-day trip to India, spending up to 15 minutes in Ukraine, writes № 10.
However, the spokesman said Mr Johnson “was not there to talk to another democracy about what action they should take” when asked if he had challenged Mr Putin.
And he acknowledged that the talks focused more on “energy and defense” than on calling on Mr Modi to stop buying weapons, oil and gas from Russia.
Mr Johnson told a news conference that India would “not change” its “historical relations” with Russia, returning to the Cold War, despite the invasion of Ukraine.
Its foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, met with Modi in Delhi this month and insisted that the two countries would continue to find ways to trade, despite Western sanctions.
Add Comment