UK premier in India for trade and anti-Russia action talks

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson spins khadi on a charkha or a spinning wheel during his visit to the Sabarmati Ashram, also known as Gandhi Ashram, in Ahmedabad, India yesterday.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrived in India yesterday touting job-creating investment but facing long odds to get his reluctant counterpart Narendra Modi to back Western action against Russia. Johnson arrived in Gujarat — Modi’s home state and the ancestral home to half of the UK’s British Indians — where he met business leaders and took a cultural tour of the historic Ahmedabad city.  He will leave for New Delhi to meet his Indian counterpart today. The visit provides Johnson some respite from the “partygate” controversy over his criminal violation of pandemic lockdown rules in the UK. Johnson missed a parliamentary vote yesterday into whether he deliberately misled the House of Commons in previously denying any Downing Street rule-breaking — normally a resigning matter. The India trip has been twice postponed because of Covid-19 flare-ups in each country, and was briefly in doubt again this week when the vote was announced, with opposition leaders insisting Johnson stand down. But UK sources said it was seen as too important to put off again. Downing Street said it would seal two-way investment deals worth more than £1bn ($1.3bn), creating almost 11,000 jobs in Britain. “What we’re focusing is the incredible opportunities to deepen this partnership,” Johnson told reporters while visiting a factory in Gujarat. Johnson’s visit began with a trip to Sabarmati ashram, once the home of independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, where he was invited to sit cross-legged and work a wooden spinning wheel. The tool was once vital to the local textile industry and championed by Gandhi as a symbol of resistance to Britain’s colonial rule of India. Downing Street said the visit would yield new partnerships on defence, artificial intelligence and green energy, along with investment deals in areas including robotics, electric vehicles and satellite launches. But London acknowledges that it is some way off clinching a post-Brexit trade deal with Modi’s government, which wants more visas for Indians to work or study in the UK. India meanwhile has refused openly to condemn the Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine, reliant as it is on Russian imports of energy, agricultural goods and military hardware. “India and Russia have historically a very different relationship, perhaps than Russia and the UK have had over the last couple of decades,” Johnson said. “We have to reflect that reality, but clearly I’ll be talking about it to Narendra Modi.” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss came away from New Delhi empty-handed last month when she pressed the Indians to do more against Russia, and Modi has also given short shrift to appeals from US President Joe Biden. Johnson will tout the benefits of India moving more quickly towards renewables — a pertinent strategic issue as countries attempt to pivot away from Russian energy.