New Delhi: British Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss, also Commonwealth and Development Affairs Minister, will pay a three-day official visit to India from October 22, Friday. An MEA announcement said that during her stay in New Delhi, Ms. Truss would hold talks with Minister of External Affairs, Dr S Jaishankar, on October 22 on bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest.
As part of the visit, Ms. Truss will travel to Mumbai on October 23. It may be stated that during the India-UK Virtual Summit between the two Prime Ministers held on May 4, 2021, the bilateral relationship between the two nations was elevated to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The ties have been marked by regular high-level exchanges and growing cooperation in diverse areas.
Ms. Truss' visit will be an opportunity to review the Roadmap 2030 launched during the Virtual Summit. This will further deepen the partnership across various sectors like trade, science and technology, innovation, defence, climate, education and health sectors, the MEA release said.
During the last week, two important meetings between two sides were held in London and Brussels. The second India-UK Multilateral Dialogue was held on Monday, October 18 2021, in London.
It may be mentioned that in a major push to bilateral ties between India and the United Kingdom, the two foreign ministers held the inaugural Maritime Dialogue in a virtual format on Monday, October 18.
The virtual deliberations between External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar and his British counterpart, Ms Truss were held as part of the broad agreement drawn in the India-UK Roadmap 2030 for future relations.
Britain recently relaxed norms on Covid vaccines, giving ease to Indians travelling to that country. The bitterness of 'tit-for-that' rhetoric seems to be over.
To make the United Kingdom understand things in a language it understands better, on October 1, the Indian government decided to impose 'reciprocity' on all British nationals arriving in India from the UK with regard to the vaccine and COVID-19 protocols.
But now, these things appear to have been resolved, and ties are back to normalcy and cordial. Both Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Boris Johnson also held tele talks recently.
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