Receive free Rishi Sunak updates
we will send you myFT Daily Digest Email summary of the latest information Rishi Sunak Every morning there is news.
India should “condemn” Russia for invading Ukraine and use its influence to help end the war, Rishi Sunak will urge Narendra Modi when the two countries meet in New Delhi on Saturday.
Britain’s first Indian prime minister, Sunak, will travel to New Delhi to attend the annual G20 summit. This is his first visit to the country since entering Downing Street.
Sunak and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are expected to hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit to discuss progress on a trade deal the two countries are trying to negotiate.
Downing Street said ahead of the visit that Sunak would also raise the issue of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and encourage Modi to take a more active diplomatic stance.
A spokesman for the British prime minister said Sunak would “use every opportunity” during his visit to deepen Britain’s support for Kiev and “promote further global support”.
The spokesman added that India “as the world’s largest democracy has an important role to play in denouncing Russian violations of human rights and indeed democracy itself”.
“We will use our meetings with Modi or elsewhere to encourage them to use that leverage to end this brutal invasion,” he said.
Despite Sunak’s planned pleas, the Indian government is seen as unlikely to take a more vocal stance against Russia over the Ukraine war.
India has remained neutral throughout the conflict, but Modi has spoken about its impact on food and commodity prices and its spillover effects on India and other emerging economies.
Modi has also said repeatedly that this is “not an era of war”, despite India buying Russian oil at a discount throughout the conflict and Moscow being New Delhi’s biggest arms supplier.
Downing Street emphasized that Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided not to attend the G20 summit for the second consecutive year, and that Sunak will criticize his stand-in Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “face-to-face” at the weekend. .
Sunak is due to unveil Britain’s plans on Friday to host a global food security summit in London in November in response to Russia’s “shackles” on Ukrainian grain exports.
The event will be organized in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Children’s Investment Fund, United Arab Emirates and Somalia.
Meanwhile, the two sides stepped up the pace of negotiations even though British officials had long since given up hope of finalizing a trade deal with India in time for the G20 summit.
British business secretary Kemi Badnock traveled to New Delhi last month to inject political momentum into the talks.
The UK wants to develop the whiskey and car markets in India, while increasing services and investment opportunities. India wants to export more manufactured goods and services to the UK and get more work visas for its citizens.
Downing Street confirmed that the UK was prepared to discuss business visas in the negotiations, but distinguished “temporary movements of businessmen for specific purposes” from more permanent forms of immigration.
A spokesman for Sunak said there were “no plans to change our immigration policy to secure a (free trade agreement) with India”.
The UK’s stance on immigration from India was discussed at a weekly meeting of Sunak’s cabinet on Tuesday, with ministers agreeing that the UK cannot relax policy, according to government insiders.
Svlook
