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Context: India-U.K. decided to form joint group to enhance defence cooperation.

 

Details:

• It was decided on the side-lines of DefExpo 2022 in Gandhinagar on October 18, 2022. DefExpo-2022 has representation from 20 U.K. defence companies.
• The JWG is part of an ongoing initiative between the two countries to strengthen the defence and security partnership.
• The U.K. recently issued its first Open General Export License in the Indo-Pacific region to India, shortening delivery times for defence procurement.
• The U.K. industry is already integrating Indian defence suppliers into their global supply chain.
• The Royal Air Force (RAF) recently conducted a subject matter expertise exchange with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) during the visit of Eurofighter Typhoon, Voyager and A-400 in New Delhi and also held joint-flying exercises with the Indian Air Force (IAF).

 

Background of relations:

• India and the United Kingdom share historic ties since several centuries.
• The two countries have a Strategic Partnership since 2004 and enjoy a multi-faceted relationship spanning across trade and economy, health, science & technology, defence & security, people-to-people relations, climate change and close cooperation on multilateral issues.
• There have been regular high level visits

 

Bilateral Institutional Engagements:

• The India-UK Foreign Office Consultations
• The India-UK Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Dialogue
• India-UK JWG on Counter Terrorism
• India and UK also regularly meet under the UN Dialogue, Policy Planning Dialogue, Strategic Dialogue, Cyber Dialogue and Home Affairs Dialogue to discuss cooperation in specific sectoral areas.

 

Economic Cooperation:

• Merchandise trade between the two countries was US$15.45 billion in 2019-20 with the trade balance in favour of India.
• During the period of April to August 2020, India’s merchandise export to the UK was USD 2.33 billion and Import was USD 1.47 billion, totalling USD 3.80 billion.
• India invested in 120 projects and created 5,429 new jobs in the UK to become the second-largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) after the US in 2019 according to the Department for International Trade (DIT) inward investment statistics for 2019-2020.
• UK is the 6th largest inward investor in India, after Mauritius, Singapore, Netherlands, Japan, and USA with a cumulative equity investment of US $28.39 billion (April 2000 - June 2020), accounting for around 6% of all foreign direct investment into India.

 

Defence:

• India and the UK signed the Defence and International Security Partnership (DISP) in November 2015 to provide a strategic roadmap and direction to the evolving India-UK Defence Relations.
• Defence Consultative Group at Defence Secretary level last met in 2019.
• The virtual Defence Equipment Sub-Group (DESG) meeting was last held in 2020.
• The secretarial level talk was focused on issues about defence production and defence industry collaboration.
• Around 70 defence related companies across the UK supply various goods for aircraft/helicopter manufacturing/overhaul at HAL like ejection seats, fuel tank kits, hydraulic pumps, engine spares etc and support legacy platforms like Jaguar, Mirage & Kiran.
• Maritime cooperation is another area where engagement is increasing.
• UK is deploying Carrier Strike Group in Indian Ocean region this year in line with its strategic tilt to Indo-Pacific.

Education, Research and Innovation:

• UK is among the favoured destinations for Indian students to pursue higher education.
• India was one of the biggest beneficiaries of UK’s new liberalised point-based immigration system.
• Around 50000 Indian students are currently studying in UK.
• UK is India’s second largest partner in Science and Technology collaborations. The two sides are collaborating under institutionalized mechanisms like UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) and through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) programmes.
• UK identifies India as a key development partner. Further, the two sides are discussing Global Innovation Programme, which will support Indian sustainable innovations to be scaled up and transferred to select developing countries. GIP builds on the success of Invest Global, a pilot project that was supported by DST and ex-DFID as part of the Millennium Development Alliance.

 

Climate and Environment:

• India and UK closely engage on climate related issues through various mechanisms including the Ministerial Energy Dialogue (Sep, 2018), and Joint Working Groups on Climate, Power and Renewables.
• India-UK Green Growth Equity Fund is mobilising institutional investments in the renewable energy, waste management, electric mobility and environment sub-sectors in India.

 

Health:

• Health sector collaboration is a key element of India-UK Strategic Partnership.
• The Joint Working Group on Health and Life Sciences regularly meets to prioritise and coordinate bilateral cooperation in the health sector.
• The successful partnership between Oxford University, AstraZeneca and SII on Covid19 vaccine demonstrated the potential of Indian and UK expertise working together to solve international challenges.
• The two sides are also working on pandemic preparedness, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), Zoonotic research, non-communicable diseases, digital health, ayurveda and alternate medicines, as well as health worker mobility.
• An MOU was signed in April 2018 during the visit of PM Modi to the UK.

 

Multilateral Collaboration:

• UK has been supportive of India's permanent membership of UNSC since 2004 and voted favourably in the roll-over decision on UNSC reforms to the 70th session of UNGA.
• UK is also a strong supporter of India's membership of the NSG, MTCR, Australia Group and Wassenar Arrangement.
• UK and India are the current co-chairs of CDRI. UK is also a member of ISA and supports its activities.

 

Indian Diaspora:

• The Indian Diaspora in UK is one of the largest ethnic minority communities in the country, including approximately 1.6 million British nationals of Indian origin and about 3,51,000 NRIs living in the UK equating to almost 2.5 percent of the UK population and contributing 6% of the country’s GDP.

 

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