Foreign Secretary has today addressed India
Global Week on the thriving UK-India partnership.
"Hello, and thank you for having me as part of India Global Week.
Covid-19 is a global challenge.
And the UK has been proud to stand alongside India in its
international response.
As we have responded to this crisis, we have been privileged to
have 25,000 Indian professionals working in our brilliant
National Health Service here at home. We hugely value their
contribution.
With India’s help, we were able to obtain vital supplies of
paracetamol at the height of the crisis, critical in the fight
against Covid-19.
Over the past few months, we’ve brought home UK nationals from
India, and worked closely with the Government of India to get
Indian nationals home safe and sound.
Throughout this crisis, we’ve worked together.
So I’d like to thank the Government of India, and my colleague
and friend Dr Jaishankar for their invaluable assistance in this
extraordinary effort.
As leaders in the international response, the UK and India have
also co-authored the G20 Action Plan, providing an immediate
package of $200 billion of global support to the most vulnerable
countries around the world.
Even before Covid, UK was India’s second biggest research
partner, with our joint research estimated to be worth £400m by
2021.
And with India’s contribution to the recent GAVI vaccine summit,
together we smashed the target for vaccine funding, with $8.8
billion raised.
But we have the potential to do more.
A vaccine created by British scientists and manufactured in
India, if successful in clinical trials, will reach 1 billion
people across the developing world, thanks to Oxford University
and India’s Serum Institute.
That would be an extraordinary achievement – benefitting not only
the British and Indian people, but making it accessible for the
most vulnerable people, right across the world.
Working together, we can make it happen.
Beyond the immediate challenge of Covid, the friendship between
Britain and India is strong, and we want to take it to the next
level.
Our trade relationship is growing.
Bolstered by entrepreneurs, business founders and innovators, it
increased by nearly 10% to over £24 billion in 2019.
We issue more skilled work visas to India than the rest of the
world combined.
And the number of Indian students in the UK has tripled in the
last three years.
Bound by our shared aspirations, the UK and India will be
energetic champions of free trade, to boost small businesses, cut
the cost of living, and create the jobs of the future.
We also believe our friendship with India will be crucial, as the
UK fulfils its ambition to be an even stronger force for good in
the world.
When the UK hosts COP26 in 2021, we will be key partners in
tackling climate change.
And as India returns to the UN Security Council next year and
takes up the G20 Presidency in 2022, I look forward to deepening
our cooperation on international issues.
Bound by the depth of friendship between our peoples, we will
look to India as partners, not only in our response to this
current crisis, but as we build back better and stronger than
ever.
Britain will continue to be a part of India’s success story, and
India will continue to be a part of ours.
Thank you."
