United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his visit to India announced a host of commercial deals worth £1 billion, as he aimed to deepen the strategic trade, defence and people-to-people ties between the two countries. The UK prime minister is on a two-day visit to the country, and arrived at Ahmedabad on Thursday, April 21, where he was given a grand welcome. Johnson also welcomed “more than 11,000 new jobs created through huge new UK-India trade and investment deals as he begins two-day visit,” a statement by the UK High Commission said on the day.
“The Prime Minister will use his visit to India to boost our collaboration with one of the world’s fastest growing economies, slashing trade barriers for UK businesses and driving jobs and growth at home,” the High Commission said in the statement. During Johnson’s visit to Gujarat on Thursday, India and the United Kingdom will together confirm more than £1 billion in new investments and export deals in areas from software engineering to health, creating almost 11,000 jobs across the UK.
“As he moves on to New Delhi on Friday, the Prime Minister will also use this week’s visit to drive progress in negotiations on the landmark UK-India free trade agreement, which is expected to help double our trade and investment by 2030. Negotiating teams will hold their third round of formal talks in India next week,” the British high commission said in the statement. Johnson is scheduled to hold talks with PM Narendra Modi on Friday in New Delhi.
“Our powerhouse partnership is delivering jobs, growth and opportunities for our people, and it will only go from strength-to-strength in the coming years,” the British prime minister said as he arrived at Ahmedabad.
As many as 1,000 new jobs will be created as part of this deal through a new Switch Mobility electric bus R&D centre in the UK and the opening of their Asia Pacific Headquarters in Chennai, Britain said. Investment from leading Indian manufacturer Bharat Forge and electric truck maker Tevva Motors is set to expand to a new site in the south-east and create 500 new jobs, the country added. Around 1,600 jobs will be added as Indian software company Mastek will be investing £79mn over the next three years all over the UK, the statement by the high commission said.
Not only this, Johnson on Thursday met leading business mogul Gautam Adani at the Adani Group’s global headquarters at Shantigram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city.
“Honoured to host @BorisJohnson, the first UK PM to visit Gujarat, at Adani HQ. Delighted to support climate & sustainability agenda with focus on renewables, green H2 & new energy. Will also work with UK companies to co-create defence & aerospace technologies. #AtmanirbharBharat,” Adani tweeted afterwards.Sources said the two discussed, among other things, key sectors such as energy transition, climate action, aerospace and defence collaboration.
With India set to invest USD 300 billion by 2030 to modernize its armed forces, sources said collaboration in the defence sector was one of the key focus areas of the meeting between Adani and Johnson. Discussions revolved around how Adani Group and British companies can collaborate to co-design and develop aerospace and defence technologies as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, sources told PTI.
This is Johnson’s first major trip to India as Prime Minister after previous visits were postponed due to Covid.
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