UK PM Boris Johnson accepts Republic Day invitation, PM returns 'return gift'

Posted on 15th Dec 2020 by rohit kumar

It has been decided that next year, Republic Day United Kingdom (UK) PM Boris Johnson will be the chief guest. The UK has invited PM Modi for the G7 Summit, which is going to be hosted by Britain. UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab announced after meeting Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday.

 

The UK Foreign Minister told reporters, "Our Prime Minister Boris Johnson has accepted the invitation to be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day celebrations of India." When accepted, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said, "This India will mark the beginning of a new era of UK relations".

 

Earlier on Tuesday, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar met with UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab who visited India. During this, he held talks to increase cooperation in areas such as trade, defense, education, environment, and health. Delegation level talks were also held after the foreign ministers of the two countries met.

 

Raab is here to visit India at a time when Britain is in complex negotiations with the European Union for a trade agreement after Brexit. Raab has been visiting India from 14 December to 17 December. After the meeting, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar told reporters that talks with UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab focused on further strengthening India-UK relations.

 

"We reviewed the situation in Afghanistan and the activities related to Gulf countries and Indo-Pacific region," he said. Jaishankar said, "Challenges due to terrorism and fundamentalism were discussed, which are shared concerns." He said that the India-UK alliance is important to speed up economic recovery after Covid-19. . At the same time, Britain's Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said, "We want to strengthen economic relations with India".

 

Johnson was formally invited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a telephone conversation on 27 November. Any British Prime Minister in India has been called after a long time on the occasion of Republic Day. The last time in 1993 was Britain's PM John Major as Chief Guest on Republic Day.

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