‘No Pressure’ from UK over stance on Russia’s invasion, says India

NEW DELHI: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson put no pressure on his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi over New Delhi’s position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine when they met on Friday, India’s foreign secretary told reporters.

India has not explicitly condemned the invasion by Russia, its biggest supplier of military hardware. “They did discuss the Ukraine issue but there was no pressure,” Harsh Vardhan Shringla said after the premiers met in New Delhi.

“Prime Minister Johnson shared his perspective on it, Prime Minister Modi shared ours – which is that the Russia-Ukraine war should end immediately. There was no pressure of any kind.”

Britain and India agreed to step up defence and business cooperation during a visit to New Delhi by Boris Johnson, who said a bilateral free-trade deal could be wrapped up by October.

On his first visit to the Indian capital as UK prime minister, Johnson discussed with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi ways to boost security ties with India, which buys more than half of its military hardware from Russia.

India’s foreign secretary said Johnson did not put pressure on Modi over New Delhi’s position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. India abstained from a United Nations vote condemning the invasion, and unlike Britain and other Western nations has not imposed sanctions on Moscow.

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“We had wonderful talks that have strengthened our relationship in every way,” Johnson told a joint news briefing with Modi on the final day of his two-day trip.

“We have agreed a new and expanded defence and security partnership, a decades-long commitment that will not only forge tighter bonds between us, but support your goal of Make in India,” he said, referring to Modi’s domestic manufacturing push.

Johnson said negotiators from the two countries were expected to complete a free-trade deal by the end of this year. “We’re telling our negotiators to get it done by Diwali in October. This could double our trade and investments by the end of the decade,” he said.

Johnson said Britain would support India’s goal of building its own fighter jets, to reduce expensive imports of military equipment.  Johnson said Britain was also creating an India-specific open general export license to slash delivery times for defence items. 

Foreign Secretary Shringla said India could seek Britain’s support on electric propulsion systems for naval ships and jet propulsion systems for planes. The focus was on “co-development and co-production” of defence equipment, he said. Johnson said a free-trade agreement would help India sell more rice and textiles to Britain. 

Johnson said that during his trip he had felt like Indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar, as hundreds of people lined the streets and dozens of billboards depicted his image. “I had an amazing reception,” he said. “My face was everywhere to be seen.”