1 India-UK Relations Political Relations India and UK Are Bound
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India-UK Relations Political Relations India and UK are bound by strong ties of shared history and culture. India’s multi- faceted bilateral relationship with the UK intensified with its upgradation to a Strategic Partnership in 2004 when it was agreed to intensify cooperation in civil nuclear energy, space, defence, combating terrorism, economic ties, science & technology, education and culture. The present UK government led by PM Cameron, which came to power in May 2010, has called for a new ‘Special Relationship’ with India. The UK supports India’s proposal for permanent membership of the UNSC. 2. PM Cameron visited India for the India-UK Summit meeting from 18-20 February 2013. Apart from Ministers, his delegation included a trade delegation, leaders of the India- UK CEO Forum, members of Parliament, and University Vice Chancellors. He visited Mumbai on the first day where he gave a speech at a business event. He visited New Delhi on 19 February for bilateral delegation-level talks with our PM Dr. Manmohan Singh. A Joint Statement was issued in which it was agreed that while substantial progress had been made since the last Summit, there was considerable potential for further expanding the relationship, particularly in trade and investment. He also called on Hon’ble President and met UPA Chairperson Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. He visited Amritsar on the 20th and laid a wreath at the memorial to the 1919 Jalianwala Bagh massacre. He has become the first serving UK Prime Minister to pay his respects there. 3. A number of Summit meetings have been held since the Strategic Partnership in 2004. UK PM Tony Blair visited India in September 2005, PM Manmohan Singh visited UK in October 2006 and UK PM Gordon Brown visited India in January 2008. Soon after coming to power, Prime Minister David Cameron, accompanied by a large delegation, visited India in July 2010. 4. President Smt. Pratibha Patil paid a State Visit to the UK from 26-29 October 2009 which was the third State visit by an Indian President. The previous two visits were in 1963 and 1990 of President S. Radhakrishnan and President R. Venkataraman. 5. There are regular exchanges of Ministerial visits. Some of the important visits during the year 2012 from India were: Commerce, Industry & Textiles Minister Sh. Anand Sharma, Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Sh. Vilasrao Deshmukh, Minister of New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Minister of State (IC) for Youth Affairs and Sports, Sh. Ajay Maken, Minister of Heath and Family Welfare, Sh. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister of State (IC) for Women and Child Develoment, Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister of Urban Development, Sh. Kamal Nath, former Minister of Law and Justice and Minority Affairs, Sh. Salman Khurshid and Minister of State (IC) for Tourism, Sh. K Chiranjeevi. Finance Minister Sh. P Chidambaram, HRD Minister Dr. M.M Pallam Raju and CITM Sh. Anand Sharma, visited UK in early 2013. 6. From UK side, Secretary of State in Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Mr. William Hague, visited India on 8 November 2012. Foreign Office Minister, Mr. Hugo Swire visited New Delhi and Gujarat on 20-21 March 2013. Other important visits during the year 2012 were - visits of UK Chancellor of Exchequer, Mr. George Osborne, First Minister of Wales, Mr. Carwyn Howell Jones, First Minister of Northern Ireland, Mr. Peter Robinson, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, Secretary of State for International Development, Ms. Justine 1 Greening, Secretary of State for Home, Ms. Theresa May and Mayor of London, Mr. Boris Johnson. 7. Regular Foreign Office Consultations are held, and the last round was held in New Delhi on 1 June 2012. 8. The Parliaments of India and the UK have close relations. Speaker of Lok Sabha Smt. Meira Kumar visited the UK from 17-19 January 2011. Speaker of UK House of Commons, Mr. John Bercow, returned the visit the same year in August 2011. There are Friends of India Groups in all the three major political parties, Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat Party. There is an All-Party Parliamentary Group on India in UK Parliament. An All Party Parliamentary Group on Trade and Industry linkages with India was set up in 2009. There is an India-British Friendship Group in Indian Parliament. Parliamentary exchanges have also taken place under the banner of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. 9. Education is a very important plank of our bilateral relationship. The UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI), launched in 2005 has been a success in collaborations for schools, higher educational institutions and joint research. The second phase of UKIERI was launched in June 2011 for another five years. An India-UK Education Forum launched in 2008 holds regular meetings at Ministerial-level. The fifth meeting was held in London in January 2013. Around 30,000 students from India are studying in higher education in UK . 10. India has multifaceted cooperation in the defence sector with UK. We have institutionalised defence dialogue at Defence Secretary level and the 13th round was held in London in January, 2011.There are regular visits of Chiefs of Staff. We have regular exchanges between the services including in training of officers. We also conduct joint exercises. We also procure defence equipment from UK. There is collaboration in Research and Development also. 11. India and UK signed a Civil Nuclear Cooperation Declaration on 11 February 2010. Several joint research projects are in progress. 12. A bilateral S & T agreement was signed in January 1996. In 2006, the ‘Science and Innovation Council’ was set up which holds regular Ministerial-level meetings. A number of joint research are being conducted which include projects in nano-science, biotechnology, telecom, solar energy use and weather forecasting. 13. The UK ranks number two in the world in terms of tourists visiting India. Around 500,000 Indians visit UK every year and approximately 400,000 UK tourists visit India. Over 100 weekly flights between India and the UK are operated by Air India, Jet Airways, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. Economic and Commercial Relations 14. India-UK trade has been growing. Two-way merchandise trade during 2011-12 was US$16.19bn registering a growth of about 29% over the previous year. During the period, India’s merchandise exports to UK grew by about 20% to USD 8.597 billion and imports from UK rose by over 40% to US$7.593 billion. 2 15. India’s main exports to the UK are ready-made garments and textiles, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, petroleum and petrochemical products, transport equipment and parts, spices, manufactures of metals, machinery and instruments, drugs & pharmaceuticals and marine products. The main imports from the UK to India are precious and semi-precious stones, metalifers, ores and metal scraps, engineering goods, professional instruments other than electronics, non-ferrous metals, chemicals and machinery. In the services sector, the UK is the largest market in Europe for Indian IT services. 16. UK is India’s 3rd largest FDI investor. Top sectors attracting FDI from UK are petroleum, ports, services, roads and highways, computer software. India is the fifth largest investor in UK. There are around 700 Indian companies in the UK of which Tata is the largest private sector employer in the UK. Culture 17. India and UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cultural Cooperation in July 2010. The Nehru Centre in London is the cultural outreach of the High Commission and organises a wide range of cultural functions including talks, seminars, exhibitions, book launches, film shows, plays and music and dance programmes. Indian community 18. Of Britain’s population of 63.2 million, the population of Indian origin is estimated to be around 1.8 - 2 million. The present Parliament of UK has 8 Indian origin MPs and 24 Indian-origin Lords. In addition, there are over 180 Indian origin Councillors elected to Councils across UK. ***** April 2013 3 .