Brown's mission: bolster bilateral ties with India

Sun, Jan 20 04:40 PM

London: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown arrived in Delhi on Sunday afternoon for a two-day visit .

However, his Environment Minister Phil Woolas seems to have embarrassed him already. Woolas attacked New Delhi for not doing enough on global warming and was focussed against Western nations.

During his stay in India, Brown will launch a teach-yourself-English website which is aimed at helping Indians learn better English through Internet telephony. Brown will also announce plans to train up to seven and a half lakh English teachers in India.

Brown is expected to spend much of the day speaking to a cross-section of women and entrepreneurs. Discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are scheduled to take place on Monday.

At the Hyderabad House, the two leaders will:

exchange ideas on counter-terrorism

discuss strategies to beat climate change,

compare notes on China, Pakistan and Myanmar,

explore possibilities of collaborating on development projects in Africa,

seek tie-ups between IIMs and IITs and British universities,

and discuss liberalisation of India's legal services and banking sectors

MEA Spokesperson Navtej Sarna says, "A strong bilateral relationship is a high priority for both countries for economic, commercial, historical and foreign policy reasons as well as for the presence of a large and prosperous Indian community, or community of people of Indian origin in the UK."

Brown says, "We get 60 per cent of all Indian investment in the EU, so we've been very fortunate that Indian companies are investing in the UK. In Europe they invest in the UK, and we want to keep it that way."

Unlike his flashier French counterpart, Gordon Brown has attracted little media attention in India but he has appeared to put in some effort to get his India visit right. For the first time a British Prime Minister has invited the Indian community to 10 Downing Street.

The Indian leaders are now waiting to see if this will be more than a symbolic opening of doors to a Britain at the top.

(With Inputs from Paarull)

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