Discussion on deepening of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and accelerating the India-UK Free Trade Agreement will be the major points on the agenda when UK's Foreign Secretary David Lammy arrives in New Delhi for a brief visit on Wednesday. This is the first high-profile engagement from London since the Labour Party under British Prime Minister Keir Starmer came into power. During his visit, Lammy is likely to meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval apart from a likely meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The 51-year-old senior Labour Party MP had last month praised the close relationship and "very special friendship" between India and the UK, citing strong business, cultural, and people-to-people links. This visit follows up on a visit to India in February in his capacity as Shadow Foreign Secretary.
Lammy will leave Thursday morning to join the big ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting in Laos which Jaishankar is also likely to visit.
He set out how the new Labour government would "reset" with Europe on climate issues and forge closer ties with the Global South.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has welcomed PM Modi's leadership on global challenges. Problems discussed by the two leaders, a follow-up to the UK general elections recently held, included how the relationship between the two countries would reach back to salience, roadmap until 2030, and new areas of cooperation in ties, including defence, security, technology, and climate change. He was ready to finalize mutually beneficial free trade agreements, he sent in a telephone call to that effect on July 6, according to Starmer's office.
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