Modi, Boris adopt ‘road map’ to steer ties for next 10 years

Nine pacts inked in various fields including one on students’ movement

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday evening held a “substantive and cordial” virtual summit with his British counterpart Boris Johnson during which both adopted an ambitious bilateral “Comprehensive Road map 2030” to steer cooperation for the next ten years, elevate the current Indo-UK strategic partnership to a “new and transformational” Com-prehensive Strategic Partnership including a dramatic boosting of defence ties, and launched a bilateral Enhanced Trade Partnership (ETP) to ink an Interim Trade Agreement sometime next year and negotiate to eventually clinch a Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

Nine pacts were inked in various fields including one on Migration and Mobility Partnership that will facilitate legal movement of students and professionals wherein upto 3,000 young Indian professionals can avail employment opportunities in UK for a period of two years without being subject to a labour market test, as well as enhancing bilateral cooperation in combating illegal migration.

In a statement, the British High Commission (BHC) said the bilateral“unique agreement includes a special Young Professionals scheme to allow young Indian and British professionals to work and live in each other’s country for two years — the first such scheme for a visa-national country (countries which require visit visas to visit the UK)”. The agreement will “allow thousands of 18-30-yearolds to work and live in each other’s country for up to two years”, the BHC added.

The Enhanced Trade Partnership (ETP) meanwhile is envisaged to further remove trade barriers, provide each other greater market access and set an ambitious target of more than doubling India-UK trade by

2030.

Both sides decided to negotiate a comprehensive FTA to “unlock the full potential of their trade and commercial relationship, boosting jobs, investment and exports”.

Prime Minister Modi also pressed for the swift extradition of economic offenders from Britain back to India, seen in the context of the cases of both alleged offenders Vijay Mallya and

● BRITISH HIGH Commission says the bilateral ‘unique agreement includes a special Young Professionals scheme to allow young Indian and British professionals to work and live in each other’s country for two years — the first such scheme for a visanational country (countries which require visit visas to visit the UK)’.

Nirav Modi.

Both countries also agreed to boost defence and security cooperation including in the IndoPacific region where joint naval exercises will be conducted and also begin a “new maritime dialogue”, measures seen as a veiled message to China.

Boosting bilateral defence cooperation will also include “India-UK collaboration on key military technologies including combat aircraft, maritime propulsion system and complex weapons” to help “deliver the next generation of defence and security capabilities through codevelopment and co-production”.

The “comprehensive Roadmap 2030” that was launched which will pave the way for further cooperation over the next decade across five key areas, namely people-topeople relationship, trade and prosperity, defence and security, climate action and healthcare”. It was also announced that thye CSP between India and UK is “underpinned by their shared commitment to democracy, fundamental freedoms, multilateralism and a rule based international order”.

Prime Minister Modi thanked British Prime Minister Johnson for the prompt and massive assistance provided by UK in the form of critical medical equipment for ameliorating the current Covid pandemic situation in India and both leaders also agreed to expand and enhance the existing UK-India vaccines partnership including in nasal vaccines, highlighting the successful collaboration between Oxford University, Astra Zeneca and the Serum Institute of India (SII) on an effective Covid19 vaccine (Oxford AstraZeneca/Covishield that is “developed in UK, Made in India and distributed globally”. Discussion of the Covishield vaccine (Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the India-based SII) and its manufacture in Britain was also discussed.

On defence cooperation, a Joint Statement issued, said, “Both Prime Ministers agreed to deepen their defence and security cooperation through the India-UK Defence and International Security Partnership framework and welcomed the finalisation of the new logistics MoU. During the deployment of the UK’s Carrier Strike Group in the Indian Ocean Region in 2021, they agreed to hold joint exercises that will deepen cooperation in a region of critical strategic importance to both countries. They affirmed their shared vision of an open, free, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific region ... . ”

The nine pacts also include an MoU to launch of a new Global Innovation Partnership (GIP) to support the transfer of inclusive, climate smart innovations from India to selected developing countries, an MoU for Customs cooperation and one in the field of medicinal regulation. Both leaders also condemned terrorism in all its forms and agreed to continue cooperation including on information and intelligence sharing on terror networks and to share experiences on dealing with the growing phenomenon of extremism and radicalisation.”