British Prime Minister David Cameron, on a rapid tour through India on the way to Sri Lanka, said on Thursday that he was open to meet Narendra Modi.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, on a rapid tour through India on the way to Sri Lanka, said on Thursday that he was open to meet Narendra Modi.
On India tour for less than 24 hours, he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi and later flew to Kolkata to meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Cameron informed a group of Indian business leaders that he was ‘open to meeting all nominated leaders including Narendra Modi’.
Reportedly, he said “We have started some relations with Gujarat already. The connection and engagement is there. I think the engagement should continue.” This is the second time in as many weeks he has talked about the Gujarat chief minister who the UK avoided for years.
When questioned if he would like to meet Modi in near future, Cameron said, “In time, yes. It is good to meet. We have an approach of meeting all politicians and leaders. In the end, it will be for the people of India whom to elect. But I’m open to meeting elected leaders.”
Soon after Diwali and before his trip to India, Cameron had put forth Modi by saying that his government is engaging with the Gujarat chief minister.
The Cameron government had transformed its position on Modi in order with EU’s policy last year. British High Commissioner to India James Bevan met Modi in October 2012 in Gandhinagar. Gujarat and West Bengal has been acknowledged as investment destinations by the UK. Speaking about the future of India-UK relationship, Cameron said the two countries were democracies and witnessing similar challenges.
“We both have challenges to fight terrorism and we both want to be successes in this global economic race that we are engaged in. We have ties of the past – the history, the language and the culture. But it is the future that excites me, on what Britain and India can do together,” he said reportedly.
Later on during his hour-long meeting with Singh at his official residence in New Delhi, Cameron reassessed the development in economic and commercial ties. Investments were on top of the agenda of dialogues along with the situation in Afghanistan-Pakistan region and the matter of immigration and visa bonds.
According to official sources, Singh and Cameron also talked about the Bangalore-Mumbai Economic Corridor and were contented with the advancement made.
