Rajnath Singh, Defense Minister of India.
After forming strategic partnerships with powerful countries of the world like America, Australia and France, India’s steps are now moving towards Britain. Seeing this, the faces of enemies like China and Pakistan have paled. Canada is also surprised to see the growing strength of India. Therefore, after 22 years, an Indian Defense Minister is going to visit Britain. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh will be on a three-day visit to Britain from Monday. His visit is being considered very important for the bilateral partnership between India and Britain in the field of defense and security. Earlier, Rajnath Singh’s pre-planned visit to Britain in June 2022 was canceled by the Indian side citing ‘protocol reasons’.
This visit of Rajnath Singh starting from Monday is being considered very important. During this, Rajnath will hold extensive talks with Britain’s Defense Minister Grant Shapps on various issues. Apart from this, he will inspect the ceremonial ‘Guard of Honour’ and will also visit the Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. BR Ambedkar memorials located in London. Defense Minister Singh is also expected to meet members of the Indian community living in Britain. Rahul Roy Chowdhury, senior fellow for defence, strategy and diplomatic affairs of South and Central Asian countries at the London-based think tank ‘International Institute for Strategic Studies’ (IISS), said, “This visit of Rajnath Singh is important from both the strategic and tactical point of view.” It is considered quite important.
Even 22 years ago, the Defense Minister of the BJP government had gone to Britain.
The last time Defense Minister George Fernandes visited Britain in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government was on 22 January 2002. According to Roy-Choudhury, Rajnath Singh’s proposed visit would signal an improvement in India’s political relations with Britain. Is. Apart from this, the growing sense of mutual trust in the relations between the two countries is also evident after the visit of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to India during the G20 summit in September last year. He said, “In fact, this visit of Rajnath will make meaningful efforts towards strengthening military cooperation and defense industrial partnership with Britain.” Defense Consultative Group (DCG) will be held in Delhi at the secretary level between the two countries in November 2023. ) meeting was held. Apart from this, the first meeting of 2+2 foreign and defense dialogue was held between India and Britain at the level of Joint Secretaries in October 2023.
Britain is not included in India’s top 5 strategic partners
Rahul Roy-Choudhury said, “Britain is no longer one of India’s top five strategic partners. However, a strong India-UK defense technological and industrial partnership could be initiated through the supply of Rolls-Royce to the ongoing projects on aero-engines,” he said. There is also a possibility of visiting one of Britain’s major arms manufacturing sites. This visit of the Indian Defense Minister is also considered important because India has expressed concern about the pro-Khalistan violence in Britain. Apart from this, talks are also expected to take place on some controversial historical issues on Britain’s defense supplies to India. (Language)
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