NEW DELHI: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations this year. Johnson has accepted India’s “very generous” invite to be the Republic Day chief guest which is “a great honour”, said UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab following his talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday. Raab is on a four-day visit to India.
This will be Johnson’s first major bilateral visit since taking office, and underlined his commitment to step up the UK’s engagement with the Indo-Pacific region, said Johnson’s office.
“I am absolutely delighted to be visiting India next year at the start of an exciting year for Global Britain, and look forward to delivering the quantum leap in our bilateral relationship that Prime Minister Modi and I have pledged to achieve,” said Johnson in a statement. Jaishankar said Johnson’s presence “would be in a way symbolic of a new era, and a new phase of India-UK ties”.
Johnson invited Modi to join the G7 summit which will be hosted by the UK in 2021.
“I’m pleased that PM Boris Johnson has invited PM Modi to join the UK-hosted G7 summit next year,” said Raab.
Addressing a joint press conference, Jaishankar said there was growing recognition and acceptance of the idea of Indo-Pacific.
On the significance of Raab’s visit, he said: “The UK Foreign Secretary comes at a very important time because we are looking at a post-Covid world and also at a post-Brexit world from the perspective of the UK.”
Jaishankar and Raab discussed trade, defence, education, environment, health and terrorism.
The focus was on how to take bilateral ties to a higher level during the four-hour-long talks, said Jaishankar.
Raab is due to meet Modi on Wednesday to discuss a ‘10-year roadmap’ for the UK-India relationship.