India sleeping economic giant, says British leader

Thursday, 09 October 2003, 19:30 IST
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LONDON: India is a sleeping economic giant, and Britain has an "enormous interest" in being involved in its development, according to senior Conservative Party leader Michael Ancram. Ancram, deputy leader of the party and shadow secretary of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs, Wednesday said India was an "extraordinary country and a great democracy". He was speaking at a reception hosted by India's High Commissioner Ronen Sen for the Conservative Parliamentary Friends of India (CPFIN) on the margins of the party's annual conference. The reception was attended by over 125 people, including several senior party leaders and MPs like Quentin Davies, James Gray, Simon Burns, Tim Loughton and Dominic Grieve, and whips Mark Field, David Wilshire and Hugh Robertson. Ancram recalled that Indian leaders had noted the need to strengthen relations with the Conservative Party during his visit to India last year. He said with the setting up of CPFIN, this gap had now been filled. Sen congratulated CPFIN for their work in reactivating the party's links with India on an institutionalised basis, and for working purposefully to strengthen cooperation between the two countries. He said new forums had been created recently, like the Conservative Parliamentary Friends of India Business Committee and the Indo-British Enterprise Partnership. Members of CPFIN had recently visited India. Referring to Ancram's call a few months ago to restructure the U.N. Security Council on the basis of objective criteria, Sen noted that as the world's biggest democracy and the fourth largest economy, India's credentials were as good, if not better, than some permanent members of the council. Peter Luff, MP and chairman of CPFIN, read out greetings from Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith to the gathering, and his message of support to CPFIN in forging links both with India and the British community. Luff said CPFIN's recent visit to India had not only been educative, but had provided a first-hand account of the dynamism of Indian democracy and its economic and other accomplishments.
Source: IANS
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