LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will offer to help India cut reliance on Russian oil and defence equipment when he begins a two-day visit this week that will test his diplomatic skills and provide brief respite from a row raging at home.
On his first trip to India as prime minister, starting onThursday, Johnson will discuss strengthening securityco-operation in meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a spokesperson for the British leader said.
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Western allieshave called for India to speak out against the war. India, whichis the world’s biggest buyer of Russia’s weapons and imports its oil, abstained in a United Nations vote condemning the invasion and has not imposed sanctions on Moscow.
Modi has expressed concern over the killings of civilians.
U.S. President Joe Biden told Modi earlier this month thatbuying more oil from Russia was not in India’s interest. Johnson will not lecture Modi on the matter, his spokesperson said.
Uday Bhaskar, a director at the Society For Policy Studiesin New Delhi, said the Indian government would listen carefully to Johnson’s message if it was made respectfully, but there was little Britain could do in practice to replace Russia as a strategic ally.
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“The problem is Britain can’t solve India’s dependence onRussia. It doesn’t have enough oil or the right type of militaryequipment to sell,” Bhaskar said.
Even though India has grown closer to the West in recentyears, the country still depends on Russia for more than halfits supply of weapons amid a Himalayan border standoff withChina and perennial tensions with Pakistan.
Johnson will arrive in India with an eye still on matters inLondon where he has been accused of deliberately misleadingparliament about parties in Downing Street that broke his own coronavirus lockdown restrictions. He will miss a vote onThursday over whether he should be referred to a parliamentary investigation.
Free trade talks
Johnson’s trip begins in Modi’s home state of Gujarat, wherehe is expected to announce investment and new collaboration in science, health and technology.
The British government said this would be the first time aBritish prime minister has visited the sprawling coastal statefamed for its spirit of entrepreneurship and the ancestral home to about half of the British-Indian population.
From there, Johnson will visit New Delhi for talks on Fridaywith Modi, where the two leaders will discuss a new defencepartnership and a free trade agreement which the two countries began discussing at the start of the year.
Britain was India’s third largest trading partner at thestart of this century, but slipped to 17th last year, Indiagovernment figures show. India’s biggest trading partners arethe United States, China and the United Arab Emirates.
India’s longstanding demand for easier access to Britishvisas for students and skilled workers in any trade talks willalso prove politically difficult for the British government.
Unlike on recent British prime ministerial trips to India,there will not be a large accompanying business delegation,emphasising that the focus for this trip is around politics.