After calling off his visit in 2022, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is finally flying to London on Monday to hold bilateral meetings over two days on security and industrial cooperation, ending the 22-year long hiatus of a ministerial tour to UK.
During his visit, Singh will hold a bilateral meeting with his UK counterpart Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps to discuss a wide range of defence, security and industrial cooperation issues, the Ministry stated on the eve of the trip.
The British regime is open to “create in India” idea of the government under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat scheme.
He will be accompanied by a high-level Ministry of Defence (MoD) delegation, comprising senior officials from DRDO, Service Headquarters, Department of Defence, and Department of Defence Production, said the MoD.
Singh, as per the Ministry, is also expected to call on the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and hold a meeting with the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Affairs David Cameron. He will also interact with the CEOs and industry leaders of UK Defence Industry and meet with the Indian community there, it pointed out.
Rajnath Singh had earlier called off his official UK tour in July 2022 for “protocol reasons”, businessline had reported. The last time an Indian defence minister went to UK was BJP’s George Fernandes in 2002 January.
The visit is much anticipated as both the countries are going to face elections soon. India will have fresh elections in May and UK is expected sometime in the middle of this year.