Investment, Defence Cooperation To Top Modi's British Agenda

NEW DELHI: Investment and defence will be the key sectors that will be in focus during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's three-day visit to Britain while the issues of climate change, black money and IMF quota reforms will be taken up by India at the G-20 summit in Turkey immediately thereafter.

Modi's visit to Britain is the first bilateral visit by an Indian prime minister in nine years after Manmohan Singh's visit in 2006. Singh visited Britain in 2009 to attend the G-20 summit.

"UK is one of the fastest growing G-7 economies and is home to a strong financial services sector," Modi stated in a series of Facebook posts ahead of his visit. "I see immense scope for our economic and trade relations to improve and this will benefit both our economies," he added.

Addressing a pre-departure media briefing on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said that India and Britain are leading investors in each other's countries. "Our ballpark figure for UK investments in India is in excess of $22 billion. It amounts to 9 percent of the current FDI level in India," he said.

He said that the working assumption on Indian investments in Britain was around $500-600 million per year for the past few years.

"We have 122 FDI investments in the UK. We are a significant job creator there," Jaishankar said.

Terming Britain a significant trade partner of India, he said that "we have almost $18 billion worth of trade".

"We have trade in services of $4 billion-plus," the foreign secretary said.

"We have a very robust partnership in science and technology, education, healthcare, culture. We have 800 Indian companies operating in the UK," he said, adding that several business agreements will be signed during the course of the visit.

The prime minister would also interact with CEOs at a roundtable in London.

"My message to the business community is clear - come, make use of the opportunities India is offering and invest in India," Modi stated on Facebook.

Defence is another area of bilateral cooperation that will be in focus.

"We have traditionally been cooperating extensively on defence and security issues and this visit will build on strong ties. Defence manufacturing will be a prime focus in my talks," Modi wrote.

According to Jaishankar, government-to-government discussions will be held between Modi and British Premier David Cameron. This will be the third meeting between them after the G-20 summit in Brisbane in November last year and the UN General Assembly session in September this year.

Read More: PM Modi's UK Visit: All You Need to Know
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