UK PM Johnson to visit India on April 21 to strengthen ties
Darpan News Desk, 20 Apr, 2022 10:45 AM
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will pay an official visit to India from April 21-22. This will be his maiden visit to India as Prime Minister, said the Ministry of External Affairs on Sunday.
During the two-day meet, the British Prime Minister will first land in Ahmedabad on April 21 and then proceed to Delhi.
The ministry statement said, "At the invitation of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the Rt. Hon'ble Boris Johnson MP, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will pay an official visit to India from 21-22 April 2022. This will be his maiden visit to India as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom."
During the visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the UK PM are likely to discuss trade, defence and the Ukraine crisis.
"The Prime Ministers will review implementation of the Roadmap 2030 and set their vision for further intensifying cooperation across the full spectrum of bilateral ties. They will also exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest," said the ministry.
"Prime Minister Johnson will be accorded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan and will hold bilateral consultations with the Prime Minister on April 22. Besides official engagements in New Delhi, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will also visit Gujarat on April 21.
"India and the United Kingdom enjoy a long and historical relationship which was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during the India-UK Virtual Summit in 2021," said the ministry in a statement.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised Indian Prime Minister as a "new kind of leader for the world's most populous democracy", and quoted Narendra Modi's election slogan in Hindi, "Modi hai to mumkin hai" ("Modi makes it possible"), at a summit here.
In fact, a delegation from the Silicon Valley, including Amazon's Jeff Bezos, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Dropbox co-founder and CEO Drew Houston, recently went all the way to Italy's hillside hamlet of Solomeo for a meeting with the fashion designer.
In a statement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing said that President Xi Jinping told PM Narendra Modi that India and China should deepen co-operation by properly handling differences and called for strengthening Confidence Building Measures to maintain stability at the border.
