Modi, Johnson agree to step up bilateral cooperation

  1. Indian Prime Minister has met the UK Prime minister at the sidelines of G-7 summit being held in Biarritz,France. 
  2. The two leaders discussed ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation in trade, defence and security.
  3. This meeting came against the backdrop of the Indian government revoking the special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories.
  4. During the discussion,UK Prime minister said that the issue of Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan which needs to be resolved through dialogue.
  5. The trade issues were also discussed between the two countries.UK is the third largest Foreign direct investment(FDI) in India and is among India’s main trading partners.
  6. The trade between the two countries is around Euro 13.6 billion in 2018. Moreover,trade had increased at an average rate of 8.8% per year between 2002 and 2018.