Ministry of External Affairs

Europe West Division

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India-UK Bilateral Brief

India and the United Kingdom share historic ties since several centu-
ries. The two countries have a Strategic Partnership since 2004 and enjoy a
multi-faceted relationship spanning across trade and economy, health,
science & technology, defence & security, people-to-people relations, climate
change and close cooperation on multilateral issues.

High level visits

 PM Modi visited the UK from April 18-20, 2018. The focus of the visit of
was on technology, increase cooperation in trade, investment and finance.
Prime Minister Modi also participated in the Commonwealth Heads of Gov-
ernment Meeting in London on 19-20 April 2018.
 Before this, PM Modi had visited UK in 2015 and UK’s PM Theresa May vi-
sited India in 2016.
 Since the beginning of the pandemic, the two Prime Ministers have spoken
on 3 occasions. Prime Minister invited PM Boris Johnson as Chief Guest
for the Republic Day celebration 2021. However, his visit had to be can-
celed at the last minute due to Covid19 situation in UK.

Recent Ministerial visits

 UK Foreign Secretary Mr. Dominic Raab visited India from 14-17 Decem-
ber 2020 and held delegation level talks with EAM. They discussed prepa-
rations for UK PM’s planned visit to India and agreed to focus on five key
areas in the proposed 2030 Roadmap – namely People-to-People contacts,
Trade and Prosperity, Defence and Security, Climate Action and Health.

 UK Trade Secretary, Ms. Elizabeth Truss, visited India from 5-10 February
2021 to discuss India - UK trade and investment relationship with our
Commerce and Industry Minister, Shri Piyush Goyal, and agree on the
next steps.

 UK Minister of State for South Asia and Commonwealth, Lord Tariq Ahmad
also visited India from 14-20 March 2021 to prepare for the proposed State
visit of UK PM in April 2021 which could not take place due to the Covid19
situation in India.

Bilateral Institutional Engagements

 The India-UK Foreign Office Consultations was last held on 4 November

2020 led by Foreign Secretary from Indian side and UK’s Permanent Under
Secretary in the FCDO, Sir Philip Barton. The consultations provided an
opportunity to review the entire range of bilateral relations, including polit-
ical, economic, commercial, scientific, regional and international coopera-
tion.

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 The India-UK Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Dialogue was held vir-
tually on 16 December 2020. Issues such as NPT, Civil Nuclear Coopera-
tion, INF & New START, CWC & BWC, JCPOA, Gulf, DPRK, China, Pakis-
tan and Export License were discussed.

 The 14th Meeting of India-UK JWG on Counter Terrorism was held in Lon-
don on 21-22 January 2021. Both sides condemned terrorism in all its
forms and manifestations, exchanged views on threats posed by globally
proscribed terrorist entities, reaffirmed to work together and acknowledged
the increasingly transnational challenge of terrorism.

 In addition, India and UK also regularly meet under the UN Dialogue (Dec,
2020), Policy Planning Dialogue (Dec, 2020), Strategic Dialogue (March,
2018), Cyber Dialogue (June, 2018) and Home Affairs Dialogue (May, 2018)
to discuss cooperation in specific sectoral areas. India and UK have also
agreed to hold the First Consular Dialogue in April 2021 but this could not
take place due to the Covid19 situation.

Economic Cooperation

 Merchandise trade between the two countries was US$15.45 billion in

2019-20 with the trade balance in favour of India. During the period of
April to August 2020, India’s merchandise export to the UK was USD 2.33
billion and Import was USD 1.47 billion, totalling USD 3.80 billion.

 India invested in 120 projects and created 5,429 new jobs in the UK to be-
come the second-largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) after the
US in 2019 according to the Department for International Trade (DIT) in-
ward investment statistics for 2019-2020. As per the CII-Grant Thornton
India meets UK Report 2020, there are now a record 850 Indian companies
operating in the UK, with combined revenues of almost £41.2 billion. To-
gether, they paid over £461.8 million in corporation tax and employed
110,793 people.

 UK is the 6th largest inward investor in India, after Mauritius, Singapore,

Netherlands, Japan, and USA with a cumulative equity investment of US
$28.39 billion (April 2000 - June 2020), accounting for around 6% of all
foreign direct investment into India. According to Global Britain and India
report (April 2019-GBI0015), some 600 UK companies operate in India
creating over 800,000 jobs, claiming one in every 20 jobs in organised sec-
tor in India (GBI0015).

 A virtual 14th Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) meeting was
held on 24 July 2020 between Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways and
Commerce & Industry, and Ms Elizabeth Truss MP, UK’s Secretary of State
for International Trade. Both sides agreed to remove barriers to trade as
part of a roadmap to a Free Trade Agreement.

 The 10th Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) was held on 28 October
virtually between the Finance Minister of India, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman,
and Mr. Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of Exchequer, UK. Both sides agreed to
cooperate through a new Partnership on Infrastructure Financing and Pol-
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 icy to support India’s ambitious plans for delivering inclusive, resilient and
sustainable infrastructure. The two Ministers agreed to establish a bilater-
al Sustainable Finance Forum to drive forward deeper cooperation on sus-
tainable finance. Both sides also agreed to establish a new annual India-
UK Financial Markets Dialogue, to share expertise, experiences and dee-
pen collaboration between our financial sectors. A new strategic partner-
ship on accelerating the development of GIFT-IFSC was also announced.

Defence

 India and the UK signed the Defence and International Security Partner-
ship (DISP) in November 2015 to provide a strategic roadmap and direction
to the evolving India-UK Defence Relations. Defence Consultative Group at
Defence Secretary level last met in March 2019. The virtual Defence
Equipment Sub-Group (DESG) meeting was last held on 9 September 2020.
The secretarial level talk was focused on issues about defence production
and defence industry collaboration.

 Around 70 defence related companies across the UK supply various goods

for aircraft/helicopter manufacturing/overhaul at HAL like ejection seats,
fuel tank kits, hydraulic pumps, engine spares etc and support legacy
platforms like Jaguar, Mirage & Kiran.

 Maritime cooperation is another area where engagement is increasing. UK

is deploying Carrier Strike Group in Indian Ocean region this year in line
with its strategic tilt to Indo-Pacific.

Education, Research and Innovation

 UK is among the favoured destinations for Indian students to pursue high-

er education. India was one of the biggest beneficiaries of UK’s new libera-
lised point-based immigration system. Around 50000 Indian students are
currently studying in UK.

 UK is India’s second largest partner in Science and Technology collabora-

tions. The two sides are collaborating under institutionalized mechanisms
like UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) and through UK
Research and Innovation (UKRI) programmes.

 UK identifies India as a key development partner. Further, the two sides

are discussing Global Innovation Programme, which will support Indian
sustainable innovations to be scaled up and transferred to select develop-
ing countries. GIP builds on the success of Invest Global, a pilot project
that was supported by DST and ex-DFID as part of the Millennium Devel-
opment Alliance.

Climate and Environment

 India and UK closely engage on climate related issues through various me-
chanisms including the Ministerial Energy Dialogue (Sep, 2018), and Joint
Working Groups on Climate, Power and Renewables.

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 India-UK Green Growth Equity Fund is mobilising institutional invest-
ments in the renewable energy, waste management, electric mobility and
environment sub-sectors in India.

Health

 Health sector collaboration is a key element of India-UK Strategic Partner-

ship. The Joint Working Group on Health and Life Sciences regularly
meets to prioritise and coordinate bilateral cooperation in the health sector.

 The successful partnership between Oxford University, AstraZeneca and

SII on Covid19 vaccine demonstrated the potential of Indian and UK exper-
tise working together to solve international challenges. The two sides are
also working on pandemic preparedness, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR),
Zoonotic research, non-communicable diseases, digital health, ayurveda
and alternate medicines, as well as health worker mobility.

 Ayurveda: An MOU was signed in April 2018 during the visit of PM Modi to
the UK. Under which £110,000 was sanctioned to the Prince’s Foundation,
UK/College of Medicine, for developing an AYUSH Centre at St. Charles
Hospital, London. It launched the ‘Ayuryoga’ programme in November
2020 and started online modules to raise awareness and practise of Ayur-
veda and Yoga in UK. Future projects under this MoU are being discussed
including on the recognition of ayurvedic medicines in the UK.

Multilateral Collaboration

 UK has been supportive of India's permanent membership of UNSC since

2004 and voted favourably in the roll-over decision on UNSC reforms to
the 70th session of UNGA. UK is also a strong supporter of India's mem-
bership of the NSG, MTCR, Australia Group and Wassenar Arrangement.

 UK and India are the current co-chairs of CDRI. UK is also a member of

ISA and supports its activities.

Indian Diaspora

 The Indian Diaspora in UK is one of the largest ethnic minority communi-

ties in the country, including approximately 1.6 million British nationals of
Indian origin and about 3,51,000 NRIs living in the UK equating to almost
2.5 percent of the UK population and contributing 6% of the country’s
GDP. At present there are sixteen Indian origin MPs in the UK Parliament
and, out of these, five of them hold key Ministerial posts in the Govern-
ment.

(29 April 2021)

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