UK PM's India Visit Marking New Kind Of Relationship: Envoy

The envoy highlighted several pillars of focus for the bilateral engagement, covering areas such as defence and security and climate action and healthcare.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's scheduled visit to India at the end of the next month promises to be a very significant marking of a new kind of relationship across trade and investment as well as the exchange of people and ideas between India and the UK, British High Commissioner to India Alex Ellis said on Friday. The envoy, who is in charge of finalising the prime ministerial visit agenda, highlighted several pillars of focus for the bilateral engagement, covering areas such as defence and security and climate action and healthcare, including cooperation in the area of COVID-19 vaccines. "This is the first major bilateral visit that this Prime Minister would have made to any country outside the UK, that says quite a lot about the significance of the India relationship which he seeks," said Mr Ellis, addressing a PTI question on the visit during a virtual seminar organised by the London-based think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). "It is very exciting that he is coming. He was planning to come in January, but the Covid situation in the UK put paid to that, but he is very keen to come and we are really looking forward to what we hope will be a very significant marking of a new kind of relationship," he said.