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Cannot deal with global issues without India: UK High Commissioner

Govt stand on farm laws is that it is India's internal matter: Alex Ellis

Alex-Elis-Uk-High-Commissioner Alex Ellis, the UK's High Commissioner to India | Gov.uk

India is necessary when it comes to seeking a solution to any global problem, said the United Kingdom's new high commissioner to India, Alex Ellis, on Friday in his first interaction with the media after assuming office. 

He termed this to be an auspicious time for the bilateral, with the stars aligned right—with the UK having left the European Union and now forming its independent trade policy, and the two prime ministers, Narendra Modi and Boris Johnson seeing eye to eye on international matters. 

Ellis, who has travelled rather extensively across the country since his arrival a few weeks ago, said that there was tremendous potential to scale up trade ties from the present £24 billion volume, and he hoped that there might be a trade deal soon. He reiterated that Johnson will be visiting India in the coming weeks—before the UK hosts the G 7 meet in June, where India has been invited as a guest. Johnson was supposed to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade but the visit was cancelled because the UK went into a fresh lockdown. 

The UK has intensified its engagement with India post-Brexit. Only yesterday, it announced the opening of the new graduate route to the UK from July 1. This post-study work route will allow eligible Indian students, two to three years of stay back for work, or to look out for work, after completing their studies. There have been three minister-level visits from the UK to India in the past few months. Only recently, Alok Sharma, president-designate for COP 26, the climate change meet that the UK will host in November, was in India and he met Modi. 

Ellis said that the UK's vision on the Indo Pacific would be articulated clearly in the vision document for the next decade that will be released shortly, but that the tilt towards the Indo Pacific was already visible. 

He spoke about the upcoming climate change meet and said that as the host nation, the aim would be not just to forge consensus on how to keep global temperatures from rising, but also, how to adapt to climate change events that are already being felt across the world. He said that India has been an example of resilience and adaptation to such events, and the world looked towards India for such solutions. During his recent visit to Ahmedabad, he met both Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani. 

"Mr Adani will soon be the owner of the largest renewable country in the world," Ellis said, noting that the climate dialogue could only be taken forward through businesses and consumers. 

The envoy noted that the British Parliament would be discussing the Indian farm law issue, but a discussion among elected representatives was different from what the government's stand is, which is that this is an internal matter of India.

He, however, said that the Indian diaspora was growing in strength and influence across the world, even as India's stature was growing in the global arena. As such, occasions when India's internal matters get discussed overseas will only increase with time, and it was up to India on how it chose to resolve this matter.

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