UK defence minister is accused of snubbing Sitharaman: Report
london — Britain’s Defence Minister Gavin Williamson is reportedly under fire from within the UK Cabinet for turning down a bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman, who was due to attend the first-ever UK-India Week here, a media report claimed on Sunday.
The meeting was requested over a month ago by Indian officials, and at least two British ministers including foreign secretary Boris Johnson reportedly sought to convince Williamson of the importance of finding time in the diary for Sitharaman.
Williamson, UK Secretary of State for defence, declined to meet Sitharaman’s three-day window of bilateral talks on security cooperation and defence procurement between June 20 and 22, according to The Sunday Times.
There was no immediate comment from the Ministry of Defence in New Delhi.
“People are spitting blood about this,” the newspaper quoted a UK government source as saying.
“India has one of the fastestgrowing defence budgets in the world, spending something like $50 billion a year. It feels like another ill-judged move by Williamson,” the source said.
The report said Williamson has been accused of angering one of the world’s largest emerging economies by snubbing his Indian counterpart.
Manoj Ladwa, the founder of UK-India Week organised in London and Buckinghamshire between June 18 and 22, said: “It would of course have been really good if Williamson could have spared some time, but let’s also not kid ourselves that the Indians will have lost too much sleep over it”.
The event, which included a two-day conclave and UK-India Awards, attracted a battery of senior political and business figures, including Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox, Culture Secretary Matt Hancock, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Foreign Office Minister Mark Field and Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable and the opposition Labour party representatives like Barry Gardiner. —