- Monday, March 10, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
British high commissioner to India Alex Ellis on Tuesday (6) said ties between the two nations would be strengthened under the leadership of Liz Truss, who took over as the prime minister of the UK succeeding Boris Johnson who quit in July.
The envoy said Truss knows India well; has visited the South Asian nation three times in last year and half and the trade negotiations that she kick-started are in full swing at the moment. He also said that Truss will strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between the UK and India.
Speaking to Asian News International, Ellis highlighted the need for mutual cooperation between India and the UK to ensure an open and secure Indo-Pacific. “Indian-UK economies are quite closely tied already, we aim to double-trade by 2030,” he said.
#WATCH | Defence cooperation is part of the comprehensive strategic partnership, which we've agreed with India last year…Last week I myself was on board INS Vikrant. So there's a lot we can do.This is an area where the PM wants to see further progress: British High Commissioner pic.twitter.com/8CVkd3ksGI
— ANI (@ANI) September 6, 2022
The high commissioner also reiterated the agreement between the two countries made last year on defence cooperation and was optimistic about opportunities for industrial and political cooperation under Truss.
The Indian leadership, including prime minister Narendra Modi, congratulated Truss on becoming the prime minister beating Rishi Sunak in a four-week long contest. Indian external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar also congratulated the new British prime minister and said New Delhi is confident about its ties with London under Truss’s premiership.
India recently pipped the UK to become the world’s fifth largest economy, something that China cited to poke fun at Britain.
