New Delhi: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has accepted India’s “very generous” invite to be the Republic Day chief guest at next month’s celebrations in Delhi, UK’s Foreign Secretary said today, calling it “a great honour”. this may be Boris Johnson’s “first major bilateral visit” since he took charge last year, his office highlighted.
Downing Street announced on that Johnson would travel to India in January 2021 to strengthen a key strategic relationship, which supports jobs and investment across the UK as part of his first major bilateral visit since taking office, and the first since the UK’s departure from the EU.
“I am absolutely delighted to be visiting India next year at the beginning of an exciting year for Global Britain, and appearance forward to delivering the quantum jump in our bilateral relationship that Prime Minister Modi and that i have pledged to achieve,” British PM said during a statement.
He is only the second British leader since India’s independence to attend the Republic Day parade in Delhi as guest of honour after john major in 1993.
Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said his presence at the annual celebrations “would be in a way symbolic of a replacement era, and a new phase of India-UK ties”.
Boris Johnson has also invited PM Modi to join the G7 summit next year in Britain, said UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab; India would be one among the three guest countries. Mr Raab reached Delhi this morning for a four-day India visit, and was welcomed by the secretary of state.
“I’m pleased that PM Boris Johnson has invited PM Modi to hitch the UK-hosted G7 summit next year. British PM has also accepted the very generous invitation to attend India’s Republic Day celebrations in January, which may be a great honour,” he said this afternoon.
“The UK Foreign Secretary comes at a really important time because we are looking at a post-COVID world and also watching a post-Brexit world from the perspective of the united kingdom . This is the correct time for us to hold discussions,” S Jaishankar said on Dominic Raab’s visit.