BoJo cancels visit to India
Britain adds India to COVID-19 travel 'red list' after registering103 new variant cases
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has cancelled his trip to New Delhi, which was scheduled for next week, in view of the severity of the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic in India.
An official statement of the Ministry of External Affairs said, "In view of the prevailing Covid situation, it has been decided by mutual agreement that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will not visit India next week."
However, the two sides will be holding a virtual meeting in the coming days to launch plans for a transformed IndiaUK relationship. "Both leaders attach the highest importance to taking the India-UK partnership to its fullest potential and propose to remain in close touch in this regard and look forward to an in-person meeting later in the year," the ministry said.
The UK is eyeing a new bilateral trade deal with India, following its exit from the European Union. India is the second-largest investor in the UK, after the US. Post-Brexit, the UK is focused on the Indo-Pacific region for its economy and security.
Johnson's trip to India was initially scheduled to take place in January but was cancelled when the UK entered a national lockdown, the third of its kind since the onset of the pandemic last year.
India in Britain’s COVID-19 travel 'red list'
Britain on Monday added India to its COVID-19 travel ‘red
list’, which effectively bans all travel from the country and makes a 10-day hotel quarantine compulsory for UK residents arriving back to the country.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed the move in the House of Commons as he revealed that 103 cases of the so-called Indian variant had been identified in the UK, of which the "vast majority have links to international travel".
He said that samples of that variant have been analysed to see if the new variant has any "concerning characteristics", such as greater transmissibility or resistance to treatments and vaccines.
"After studying the data, and on a precautionary basis, we've made the difficult but vital decision to add India to the red list," the minister told MPs.
"This means anyone who is not a UK or Irish citizen... cannot enter the UK if they have been in India in the previous 10 days," he said.
The new rules, which Hancock said has not been taken "lightly", will come into force from Friday.