Rajnath Singh to visit the UK, the first by a Defence Minister in 22 years

Rajnath Singh's UK visit to strengthen defence & security ties, discuss trade & FTA, and visit memorials of Gandhi & Ambedkar.

London Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is set to embark upon a three-day visit to the UK from Monday, seen as significant to the bilateral partnership in the sphere of defence and security as the last ministerial level visit took place 22 years ago.

Mr. Singh’s planned visit to the UK in June 2022 was called off by the Indian side for “protocol reasons”, making next week’s tour a highly anticipated one.

Besides wide-ranging talks with his UK counterpart Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, Mr. Singh is expected to inspect a ceremonial Guard of Honour and undertake visits to the memorials of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in London. A community interaction with members of the Indian diaspora in the UK is also expected to be part of his three-day itinerary.

“This visit is significant in terms of both optics and substance. In terms of the former, this is the first visit of India’s Defence Minister to the UK in 22 years – the last visit was by then Defence Minister of a previous BJP-led government, George Fernandes, to London on 22 January 2002,” said Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, Senior Fellow for South and Central Asian Defence, Strategy and Diplomacy at the London-based think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

As a defence analyst who has been championing such a visit in his high-level discussions over the years, Mr. Roy-Chaudhury believes Mr. Singh’s proposed upcoming visit indicates an improvement in India’s political relationship and the building of trust with the UK, following British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s visit to India for the G20 Summit in September 2023.

“In substantive terms, the visit will seek to deepen military cooperation and defence industrial partnerships with the UK by building on the November 2023 Defence Consultative Group (DCG) meeting in Delhi at the level of Secretaries and the inaugural meeting of the 2+2 Foreign and Defence Dialogue at the level of Joint Secretaries in October 2023,” he said.

“The UK is no longer one of India’s top five strategic partners. However, the resumption of a strong India-UK defence technological and industrial partnership could take place through the delivery of ongoing projects on aero-engines with Rolls-Royce; naval electric propulsion with GE (Naval) UK and Rolls-Royce; and ground-based air defence system with MBDA (UK)," he said. "Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is likely to visit one of these arms manufacturing sites during his visit to the UK,” he noted.