British PM starts India tour, seeks cooperation
London/New Delhi: British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Bangalore on Tuesday night. This is Cameron's first tour to India since assuming office.
Cameron is in India at a time when restrictions on immigration to Britain, curbs on student visas and London backing the Taliban-Pakistan group in Afghanistan have not gone down well with New Delhi.
So the new British Prime Minister must play his cards carefully during his current India visit. "We don't have a narrow mercantilist approach. Trade has to be two-way, investment has to be two-way. We recognise that relations with India have to be on a reciprocal basis, it has to be mutual advantage," said Cameron's Business Secretary Vince Cable.
The focus also appears to be on Britain selling more Hawk trainer jets to the Indian Air Force and Navy for a nearly $ 1 billion. The UK also wants India to fast track the entry of British universities into India, give more contracts to British infrastructure firms and buy Britain's green technologies.
"I think in addition the UK may well be looking towards India, also China, as alternatives for investment and growth at a time when Europe is not as strong as it used to be," says Chief Economist at Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development John Philpot.
Even if there has been a slippage in both trade and investment, the British do believe they have an advantage in India. They are making a serious and special effort to make capital use of it.
But Cameron may have to try very hard. For South Block relations with the US, China, Russia and France are distinct and stand apart with Britain appearing to be part of a crowd somewhere out there.
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