India has the potential to tackle 'world's major problems', avers UK on G20 presidency

British High Commissioner to India Alexander Ellis on Monday said that India's G20 Presidency is an "opportunity" to tell the story of a "new and modern India," while also emphasising that it has the potential to tackle some of the "world's big problems". In an ANI podcast, the British envoy highlighted that India has the convincing power to bring together the fractured group of countries to work its way through and tackle the problems of today.

"During India's G20 Presidency, Amitabh Kant as G20 Sherpa is very ambitious and that flows through Prime Minister Narendra Modi to try and tackle some of the world's big problems for example development and how you do development in technology in future and how does technology play a role in development," he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had described India's agenda at the G-20 as "inclusive, ambitious, action-oriented". He added, "During our G-20 Presidency, we shall present India's experiences, learnings and models as possible templates for others, particularly the developing world.

Underlining the potential of India, Ellis said, "It is an opportunity to tell the story of India and the story of new India and modern India. So, I am glad that India has got the presidency and we will support it absolutely to try and find answers to those questions but its a tough ask there is a high ambition, it's a tough to ask at the same time." Alexander Ellis said that India is a powerful country and has the ability to talk to many different nations, which he stressed is "extremely useful" at the moment.

He emphasised that the world is facing a number of problems, including climate change sustainability, and public health.

India holds the Presidency of the G20 from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023. "I am really pleased that India has the Presidency of the G20. You had Harsh Shringla the other day because India is a powerful country, an increasingly powerful country," the High Commissioner said. Speaking about India's G20 Presidency, Ellis said, "It is a country which has the ability to talk to many different countries and I think that is extremely useful at the moment because you are in a world in which there are huge global problems, we talked about climate changes sustainability, we talked about public health as well."

"In a divided world and in the era of geopolitical competition, you are having to deal with big problems, where you have a fractured group of countries but India I think has the convincing power to bring together those countries to try and work its way through," he added.

'Down to political will', says Ellis on India-UK trade deal

India and the United Kingdom recently wrapped up round six of negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA). Ellis highlighted that saying, "after covering a lot of ground now the question is down to not just the technical details but political will on both sides to push for an early conclusion of the deal." "We are getting towards the end of this negotiation I would say. It's a long ascent up to any mountain, then you go through the valley for a long time, then you go up to the base camp, and then you do a short sharp ascent. That's what we are trying to do. Both countries want to do the deal and that's a big change," he said in response to a question on the FTA.

Earlier the FTA, which aims to double bilateral trade by the year 2030, was expected to conclude last year but the deal did not go through after it ran into problems. Now a seventh round of negotiations for the deal is expected to resume in the UK in the next few weeks. British PM Rishi Sunak had earlier conveyed his hope of finalising the trade agreement during a call with his Indian counterpart. The UK has signed trade deals agreements with 71 counties since its exit from the European Union in the year 2020.