India’s multi-faceted bilateral relationship with the UK has intensified over the past few years. There have been regular and close consultations at the highest levels. The UK is an important interlocutor in the bilateral, EU, G8 and global contexts.

Indo-UK Summits

2. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh visited the UK on 19-20 September 2004. During his visit, the two Prime Ministers adopted a Joint Declaration titled 'India-UK: towards a new and dynamic partnership' which envisages annual Summits and meetings between Foreign Ministers. It also and outlined areas for future cooperation in civil nuclear energy, space, defence, combating terrorism, economic ties, science and technology, education and culture.

3. The then PM Tony Blair mooted the idea of India joining G-8 discussions. At his invitation PM visited the UK on 7-8 July 2005 for the “G-8 Plus 5” Gleneagles Summit (India, China, South Africa, Brazil and Mexico).

4. The then Prime Minister Tony Blair (PMTB) visited India on 6-8 September 2005 in his capacity as EU President for the EU/ India Summit on September 7, and also for the bilateral Summit held on September 8 in Udaipur. The two leaders exchanged views on a range of bilateral, regional and multilateral issues. The UK recognized the need for a supportive international environment for meeting India’s energy requirements and agreed to take forward cooperation with India in the civilian nuclear energy sector. PMTB reaffirmed his commitment to India’s candidature for permanent membership of the expanded UN Security Council. He expressed understanding that India was 'ringed' by a number of trouble spots and urged a regular dialogue on regional issues. The two sides agreed on the need to strengthen cooperation against terrorism. The two sides signed agreements on air services (substantially increasing direct flights between the two countries), cooperation in the field of hydrocarbons, on sustainable development and films co-production. PM announced that India would found a Chair at Cambridge in honour of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru. The Chair has since been set up. PMTB announced a £ 10 million UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI). An India-UK Business Summit was also organized simultaneously with the main Summit.

5. PM met the then PMTB in St. Petersburg in July 2006 during the meeting of the Outreach Countries with G8 leaders.

6. Prime Minister Dr. Singh visited UK from 09-11, October 2006 and held the third annual India-U.K. Summit. Following discussions on a host of bilateral, regional and multilateral issues, the two leaders told a press conference that their nations enjoyed strong co-operation on business and education and on tackling terrorism and climate change. Both Prime Ministers addressed the concluding session of the India-U.K. Investment Summit.

7. Our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh extended warm felicitations to the Rt. Hon. Mr. Gordon Brown, MP, in June, 2007 on assumption of the Office of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. PM reaffirmed the friendship and cooperation between India and the United Kingdom.

Recent High-level Visits

8. UK’s then Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett visited India from 2 to 8 November 2006. On 2nd November 06 she called on Prime Minister Dr. Singh and met her counter part Shri Pranab Mukherjee.

9. Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown as Chancellor of Exchequer visited India from January 17-19, 2007. He traveled to Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. In Bangalore, he delivered the Keynote address at the CII Partnership Summit’s Plenary Session. He also visited Wipro’s Electronic City Campus. In New Delhi, he called on Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress Party President Smt. Sonia Gandhi. With Indian Finance Minister Mr. P Chidambaram he discussed the Indo- British Economic and Financial Dialogue. In Mumbai, Brown met with leading businessmen, visited Yash Raj Studios and the Bandra-Worli Sea Link Construction site.

10. Mr. David Cameron, Leader of the opposition Conservative Party along with George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor of Exchequer visited India from 4-7 September 2006. He visited New Delhi, Pune and Mumbai. In Delhi he called on PM and other dignitaries.

11. Mr. Anand Sharma, Minister of State for External Affairs visited UK from 22nd to 23rd September, 2007. During the visit, Hon’ble Minister met the Ed Miliband MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Lord Digby Jones, Minister of State for Trade and Investment in Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

12. Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, External Affairs Minister (EAM), was on a one day visit to London on October 03, 2007 as a part of the ongoing exercise of regular dialogue at the highest level between the two countries. The Mayor of London, Mr. Ken Livingstone, called on EAM and discussed London's links with India in all spheres. EAM met Mr. David Miliband, Foreign Secretary and discussed a wide range of bilateral, regional and international issues.

13. Mr. Anand Sharma, Minister of State for External Affairs, paid a visit to United Kingdom from 12-14 November, 2007. During his visit he met Lord Malloch-Brown, Minister of State for Africa, Asia and UN at UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Bilateral issues including the recent situation in Pakistan, Myanmar and Somalia were discussed.

14. Over the last few years HRH The Prince of Wales and almost every important member of the British cabinet have visited India, including the then Foreign Secretary Mr. Jack Straw (February 2005), Secretary for Trade and Industry Ms. Patricia Hewitt (January 2005), Defence Secretary John Reid (October 2005), Home Minister of State for Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality Tony McNulty (November 2005), Secretary of State for Northern Ireland The Rt Hon Peter Hain (April2006), Secretary of State for Trade Alistair Darling (January 2007), Secretary of State for DEFRA David Milliband (January 2007), etc.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s visit to India (20-21 January, 2008)

15. The India-UK Annual Summit was held in Delhi on January 21, 2008. Building on the achievements of the two declarations (2002, 2004), the two sides issued a joint statement on India-UK Strategic Partnership after the India-UK Summit. The two sides agreed on the following:

• On the importance of more representative and effective international institutions to address global challenges The UK reaffirmed its firm support for India’s candidature for a permanent membership in an expanded UNSC.
• To cooperate in developing collaboration between small and medium enterprises, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.
• To forge a closer partnership of two knowledge societies in the field of higher education. In particular, it was agreed to establish an Education Forum to work towards an early conclusion of an education partnership agreement and to enter into a MoU on an Indo-UK Higher Education Leadership Development programme to develop leadership skills in higher education.
• A Science Bridge Initiative shall be established to build institution to institution relationship on equal partnership with joint funding under the principle of parity.
• The UK supports the India-US civil nuclear cooperation initiative. Both sides agreed to promote cooperation in civil nuclear energy and would work towards a bilateral agreement for this purpose.
• Both sides expressed satisfaction over the announcement of UK-India agreement on the second phase of UK-India Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation study aimed at identifying the barriers to local carbon technology transfer.
• Both countries remain committed to build on existing cooperation on counter-terrorism including establishment of bilateral dialogue on terrorist financing.

Parliamentary Groups

16. Institutional linkages with all the major British political parties have been established to ensure that goodwill towards India cuts across party lines. The Labour Friends of India (LFIN) was launched in 1999 and has sent six parliamentary delegations to India, the last in April 2006. The Liberal Democrat Friends of India (LIB-DEM FIN) was launched in September 2000 and sent delegations to India in 2002, 2004 and 2005. The Conservative Parliamentary Friends of India (CPFIN) was launched in March 2001 and visited India in 2003, 2004 and 2006. Dr. Liam Fox, then Shadow Foreign Secretary of the Conservative Party led a delegation of four parliamentarians (three MPs and one MEP) to India on August 30-September 1, 2005. Members of all four important Parliamentary Select Committees - the Trade & Industry Select Committee, the Home Affairs Committee, the Treasury Select Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee visited India in 2006.

17. The Defence Committee visited India in April 2007 in connection with studies on Afghanistan. An All Party Parliamentary Group on India holds regular meetings. The Indo-British Parliamentary Forum (IBPF) was launched in New Delhi in April 2003. The India-United Kingdom Parliamentary Friendship Group was launched by Hon’ble Speaker, Lok Sabha on 27 September 2005. Its President is Shri Gurudas Kamat. At the invitation of Hon’ble Speaker, Lok Sabha, a five member UK parliamentary delegation of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) led by Lord Swaraj Paul of Marylebone visited India in October 2005. The Lords and Commoners Cricket Team toured India in December-January 2005, led by Crispin Blunt, MP, Captain of the British Parliamentarian team. “Cricket diplomacy” reinforced the links between the two Parliaments, with an Indian Parliamentary Team paying a return visit to the UK on September 7-12, 2005.

Bilateral Mechanisms for Political Consultations

18. Bilateral mechanisms for political consultations at the official level are- the dialogue between the Foreign Policy Advisor to the UK Prime Minister and National Security Advisor (NSA), Foreign Office Consultations led by the Permanent Under Secretary of the FCO and our Foreign Secretary, the Defence Consultative Group, the Joint Working Group on International Terrorism and Drug Trafficking and the Indo-UK Consultations on International Strategic Issues. Foreign Office consultations have been held in May and August 2007.

Terrorism

19. In foreign policy, the UK FCO Strategy Paper released on December 2, 2003, had identified international terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction as the most “catastrophic” threats to the Britain’s national security in the early twenty-first century, relegating conventional military threats to the background. The paper also identified religion as a force in international relations, with religious tensions abroad, for example, on the sub-continent, having the potential to affect the UK’s domestic security.

20. The then PMTB and Foreign Secretary had condemned the violence and called for an end to Pakistan’s support for terrorism in Kashmir. During the joint press conference with our Prime Minister in September 2004, PMTB condemned terrorism in Kashmir. The July 7 bombings in London and the recent foiled attempt to bomb aircraft flying between the UK and US have contributed to the Government taking tough measures domestically on counter-terrorism.

21. Our PM who was in the UK for the Gleneagles Summit in 2005, strongly condemned the 7/7 bombings of the London subway and bus system. The then PMTB in his press conference in India on 8 September 2005 following his Summit meeting with Indian PM, said that the world had been reluctant to recognize the insurgency in J&K as terrorism. He said that whether it was in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir or Chechnya- terrorism should never be justified. Britain also condemned the Mumbai train blasts in 2006.

22. Prime Minister Gordon Brown during his visit to India from 20-21 January 2008 underlined the importance of joint international efforts in countering terrorism. The two countries agreed to build on existing cooperation including in the protection of critical national infrastructure, mass transit systems and the security of major sporting events and expanded further in the fields of civil aviation security and crisis management. In addition it was agreed to establish a bilateral dialogue on terrorist financing.

23. Of these, the terrorist organisation Harkat ul Jehad-e-Islami was one of the 15 newly banned terrorist groups by the UK government on 10 October 2005. The LTTE had been banned earlier. The Hizbul Mujahideen has been added to the EU list of terrorist organisations and we have reiterated our request to the UK to ban it.

Economic Relations

24. There is a growing realisation in the UK of the immense business opportunities in India. The House of Commons Select Committee on Trade & Industry in June 2006 published its report on “Trade and investment opportunities with India”. Their major findings were that the UK was not as engaged with India’s markets as it should be, the Indian market was liberalizing at a pace not fully appreciated in the UK, and the UK’s institutional arrangements to support trade and investment with India were characterized by enthusiasm but also by confusion. Different mechanisms have been set up to oversee economic cooperation between India and the UK.

Bilateral trade

25. The important facts here are:

• UK is India’s fifth largest trading partner accounting for 3.56% of India’s total foreign trade in goods in 2005-06.
  
  
• India is UK’s 18th largest export market and the largest in the developing world (ahead of China).
  
  
• Bilateral Trade turnover in 2006
  Trade in goods:        £ 5.8 bn
  Trade in services:     £ 2.9 bn
  Total trade:              £ 8.74 bn
  
  
• The balance of trade is currently in India’s favour.

India’s main exports to the UK are petroleum crude & products, engineering goods, ready made garments, textiles, gold jewellery, footwear, marine products, rice and agricultural products etc.

Major exports from the UK are uncut diamonds, metal scrap, iron, chemicals, machinery, transport equipment, scientific equipment etc.

The UK is the largest market in Europe for Indian IT services. British companies have off-shored work to India (about 30) and created over 60,000 jobs. British businesses are estimated to save upwards of £1 billion every year due to off-shoring, the bulk of which is accounted for by India.

26. Bilateral merchandise trade statistics are presented in the table below:(In £ million)

Year	UK Exports to India	% change	UK Imports from India	% change	Total	% change	India's Balance of Trade
2000	2058	+41.9%	1651	+15.8%	3709	+30%	-407
2001	1772	-13.8%	1816	+10.0%	3588	-3.2%	+44
2002	1755	-1.0%	1804	-0.66%	3579	-0.25%	+29
2003	2284	+30.1%	2093	+16.1%	4377	+22.29%	-191
2004	2235	-2.18%	2290	+9.41%	4525	+3.8%	-55
2005	2798	+25.1%	2783	+21.52%	5581	+23.33%	+15
2006	2695	-3.6%	3136	+12.68%	5831	+4.48%	+441
2007 (Jan-Sept)	2062	-26.2%	2719	-13.29%	4781	-18%	+657

(Office of National Statistics and Overseas Trade Statistics, HM Customs & Excise)

27. Bilateral trade in Services is presented in the table below. (In £ million)

Year	UK Exports	UK Imports	Total	% change	India's Balance of Trade
2001	664	816	1480	+ 21.81%	+152
2002	623	808	1431	- 3.31%	+185
2003	605	810	1515	+ 5.87%	+105
2004	981	1095	2076	+ 37.02%	+114
2005	1146	1311	2457	+ 18.06%	+165
2006	1424	1485	2909.	+18.68	+61

(Office of National Statistics and Overseas Trade Statistics, HM Customs & Excise)

Indian community

28. Of Britain’s population of 59.8 million, the population of Indian origin is estimated to be around 1.5 million, accounting for the single largest segment of ethnic population. Over 40% of them live in inner and outer London. Outside London, Indian community is mainly concentrated in West and East Midlands, Leicester and Greater Manchester. People of Indian origin enjoy increasing respect on account of their achievements in the filed of entrepreneurship, education, science and technology and in other fields. Majority of the second generation have opted for higher education and are in white collar professions like doctors, engineers, solicitors, chartered accountants, etc. The present Parliament has 6 MPs of Indian origin [Parmjit Dhanda, Virendra Sharma, Dr Ashok Kumar, Marsha Singh, Keith Vaz (all Lab.) and Shailesh Vara (Cons.)] in the House of Commons and 19 peers in the House of Lords [Raj Bagri, Amirali Bhatia, Pratap Chidamner Chitnis, Narendra Babubhai Patel, Meghnad Desai, Navnit Dholakia, Shreela Flather, Tarsem King, Bhikhu Parekh, Adam Patel, Swraj Paul, Usha Prashar, Diljit Rana, Kumar Bhattacharya, Kamlesh Patel, Karan Bilimoria, Sandip Verma, Mohamed Sheikh, Khalid Hameed]

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