'UK is proud to partner with India': Sir Dominic Asquith

British High Commissioner to India Sir Dominic Asquith has hailed the efforts of the Government of India in tackling climate change. He also congratulated India for making significant progress in ease of doing business and called it a reflection of the sincerity with which steps are taken to make progress. The High Commissioner also highlighted the defence cooperation gaining “momentum” between the United Kingdom and India and said that the UK was “proud to partner with India”.

India-UK relations are getting better and better with cooperation in various areas including trade, security, counter-terrorism, climate change, health ad education said the British Ambassador to India. Discussing the growing bilateral investment, he said that “The UK and India have been top five investors in each other’s economies since 2010, and India invests more in the UK than the rest of the EU combined”. He added that the uncertainty over Brexit has not discouraged the business at all.

“Despite concerns that may exist around Brexit, in the last four years the number of Indian companies investing in the UK has quadrupled. Last year alone, the number of Indian companies grew by another 50, taking the total number of such companies in the UK to 850”, he said.

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India inching closer towards 50 business destinations

India is inching closer to be in the top 50 business destinations in the world with currently positioned at number 63 according to a report by the World Bank on ease of doing business. The UK High Commissioner lauded the efforts made by India for climbing on the ranking scale. He said: “India deserves congratulations for its improved ranking on the ease of doing a business report. Worth remembering of course that the UK continues to be ranked among the top 10 countries for ease of doing business. We were the first to partner with India on this important issue – having signed an MoU in 2016.”

The British Diplomat also explained the deepening defence between the two countries and said that India and the UK are not only “trading together” but also “thinking together”. He said:

“The Indian Chief of Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat and the UK Vice Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Tim Fraser spoke at the Indian Defence and Aerospace Summit last month about the role of India’s first Chief of the Defence Staff – the UK moved to a joint structure decades ago – and we look forward to taking this conversation further.”

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Disaster-resilient Infrastructure

The UK is one of the major economies that is entering into a legally binding commitment to achieve zero emissions by 2050. India had reiterated its commitment to tackling climate change at the United Nations. Prime Minister Modi's initiated International Solar Alliance is a coalition of 122 countries with an aim to promote solar power.

“The UK is proud to have signed up as a founder member of India’s Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure announced at the UN in September. At the same summit, the UK convened a Global Call for Action on Climate Adaptation and Resilience, which was supported by India,” added the High Commissioner.

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