U.K.’s Johnson to meet Modi in India to talk trade, defense

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will travel to India this week, a long-delayed trip that will seek to shore up trade with the world’s seventh-biggest economy and bolster defense cooperation. 

Johnson will begin the trip on April 21 in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat state, and then meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the capital New Delhi the following day. 

Johnson’s trip comes just weeks after Foreign Secretary Liz Truss visited the country in a bid to convince the Modi government to do more to isolate Russia economically after its invasion of Ukraine and join countries in reducing their strategic dependence on Moscow. 

“As we face threats to our peace and prosperity from autocratic states, it is vital that democracies and friends stick together,” Johnson said in a Twitter post.

New Delhi has avoided publicly criticizing Moscow over the conflict because the countries have historically kept close ties. Most of India’s weapons are supplied by Russia, and New Delhi and Moscow renewed a 10-year military co-operation deal when Russian president Vladimir Putin visited Modi in December. India is more worried about China, with which it clashed over their disputed Himalayan border in 2020, and wants to keep Moscow close given Russia’s friendly relationship with Beijing.

Johnson will also use the visit to try to advance negotiations for a free-trade agreement between the nations that started earlier in the year. A deal with India could boost U.K.’s total trade by up to 28 billion pounds ($36.6 billion) annually by 2035, the government estimates.

“My visit to India will deliver on the things that really matter to the people of both our nations – from job creation and economic growth, to energy security and defense,” Johnson said.

The trip is Johnson’s first since becoming prime minister in 2019. He was originally due to visit the country in April of last year, but that trip was canceled after Covid-19 cases surged in India fueled by a new variant of the virus. At the time Johnson was criticized for being slow to add India to the U.K. red-list for travel that would have banned entry for those arriving from India. 

The U.K. government did add India to the no-entry list shortly after Johnson’s trip was canceled, but the variant had already taken hold in the U.K. and spread rapidly.