Ahead of the G7 summit which India is attending at the invitation of the United Kingdom (UK), the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) stated it is highly optimistic about the Indo-UK partnership yielding significant results for the people and business in both countries and the bilateral relationship transcending into multilateral platforms.
Ahead of this year’s G7 hosted by the UK, the first since 2019, the UKIBC has urged the leaders of the two countries to build an alliance to ensure global impact in the areas of their cooperation.
“India and the UK are leading in dealing with the urgent issues facing the global community, including the most urgent and immediate ones – combatting COVID and climate change. It is equally important that the UK and India engage in multilateral forums like the G7 and ensure positive global impact that the two countries are working towards,” said Kevin McCole, Managing Director, UKIBC.
McCole added that India’s participation in the Summit was important in terms of the bilateral relationship too.
“Prime Ministers Johnson and Modi have set out a 'transformational Comprehensive Strategic Partnership', with a 10-year roadmap and it is no surprise that the Roadmap contains three of the big issues being covered at the G7: tackling climate change; healthcare cooperation (including in the immediate term to address the pandemic); and economic development through trade and investment,” said McCole.
“The Indo-UK cooperation in producing the Oxford University-Astra Zeneca vaccine clearly signals that the two countries can lead the world on healthcare R&D and manufacturing, and collaborate on digital technology, critical to improving the efficacy and availability of healthcare solutions,” he added.
McCole said that the UK India Business Council would be watching the G7 deliberations closely as the three main agenda items were at the core of Indo-UK ties and are expected to add a new dimension to the bilateral cooperation also.
