The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, today met with the Indian Minister for External Affairs, Yashwant Sinah. After their meeting Jack Straw said: 'I was pleased to see Yashwant Sinah today. This is the third time we have met in as many months, but there is always a lot to talk about. We are both working hard to promote the already excellent bilateral relationship between India and the UK. We spoke about our growing links in commerce and education. We agreed that there is a need to increase direct air services between the UK and India to satisfy consumer demands.

'We spoke about a range of regional and international issues, including India's relationship with Pakistan. And I reiterated my support for a permanent Indian seat on the UN Security Council.

'I took the opportunity to thank Yashwant for the assistance he has provided with UK consular cases in India, in particular in relation to Ian Stillman.'

The pair had met earlier in October of this year.

FOREIGN SECRETARY'S TALKS WITH INDIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (31/10/02)

EDITED TRANSCRIPT OF A DOORSTEP INTERVIEW GIVEN BY THE FOREIGN SECRETARY, JACK STRAW, AND THE INDIAN FOREIGN MINISTER, YASHWANT SINHA, LONDON, THURSDAY 31 OCTOBER 2002

FOREIGN SECRETARY:
"I want to welcome Yashwant Sinha, the Indian Foreign Minister, to the United Kingdom. This is his second visit here in less than a month and you are extremely welcome, Yashwant. I have, in the very short space of time that Yashwant has been Foreign Minister, got to know him very well. I have had extremely interesting conversations and meetings with Yashwant and colleagues in New Delhi in July, and then at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

India is a close partner of the United Kingdom and relations between our two countries are excellent, as was underlined by the meeting which our Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the Indian Prime Minister, Mr Vajpayee, had on 12 October, which Yashwant also attended.

We have had a very wide range of discussions today about the international situation, about the bilateral relations between our two countries, and about the issue which was in the news early in the year, Kashmir. I just want to say a couple of things on that. I congratulate Yashwant, the Indian government and not least the entirely independent Electoral Commission for India on the successful conduct and outcome of the elections in Jammu and Kashmir in what were extremely difficult circumstances; over 700 people were killed as a result of terrorism in that area. It underlines the strength and vibrancy of Indian democracy, and I welcome the announcement of troop withdrawals which have taken place as well.

But I also want to say that we are determined, as is Prime Minister Tony Blair and Prime Minister Vajpayee too, that the relationship between our two countries should not be defined through the prism of Kashmir. It is about mutual and deep relationships between our peoples, which extend through culture, business, sport and a whole range of other issues, as well as our history.

On those bilateral relationships, work is in hand to ensure that the targets that have been set to increase our trade, first to US$7 billion and then to US$10 billion, and in the course of that to extend the contacts and relationships between small and medium sized enterprises as well as large ones, should actually bear fruit. Indian investment here in the United Kingdom is extremely important – there are around 350 Indian companies here - and of course the Indian heritage community in this country plays a very important role as well on helping to maintain those links.

We also discussed the situation in Afghanistan and our analysis of the situation there is very similar. And we discussed United Nations issues. We have strongly supported, and continue to support, the proposal that India should join the United Nations Security Council as a Permanent Member, along with Japan and Germany. I was also able to brief Yashwant on the current state of the negotiations on the Iraqi resolution."

YASHWANT SINHA:
"There are two things which I wanted to mention in particular on the economic side. The first is that we had mentioned to Prime Minister Blair the need for cooperation and collaboration as far as the small and medium enterprises in both countries were concerned. There are some 50 Indian small and medium enterprises which have shown an interest in collaborating with British firms, that matter is in hand. But what I have suggested today is that we enter into a Memorandum of Understanding, create a framework which will give confidence to our small and medium enterprises in both countries. We are working on a draft and we will share the draft with the British government as soon as it is ready.

Similarly we reviewed the progress that is being made in the field of our biotechnology collaboration. This was an issue which came up recently in the India-UK Round Table, and here again we are in the process of preparing a Memorandum of Understanding which we will then share with the British government.

We also discussed the need for greater, more frequent air services between the two countries, which is holding up the progress of our trade and industrial collaboration. I am grateful to Jack for the very forthright manner in which he has supported India's case for permanent membership of the Security Council. I am also grateful to him for the words of praise that he has said about the elections in Jammu and Kashmir. I think it is the people of Jammu and Kashmir who need to be saluted for the courage that they have shown in exercising their right of franchise, and this has certainly confirmed once again the commitment of India and the people of India to democracy.

I am very happy that we had occasion to discuss Afghanistan, both the political situation, as well as our collaboration in the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan. I believe that Clare Short has just come back from a visit to Afghanistan and she will be visiting India later this year. That will give us an opportunity to talk in detail about areas where we could collaborate.

A very important point which was made during the meeting of the two Prime Ministers, is that the two-way, high level traffic between the UK and India is going to increase considerably in the coming months. A number of UK dignitaries will be visiting India. And you will recall that the Prime Minister of India had made this point when he met Prime Minister Blair, and it was agreed that these exchanges will take place.

So we are looking forward to intensifying our dialogue and our cooperation in the various fields. I am particularly happy that we are autonomously making progress on our bilateral relationship and that is not a hostage in any sense to the Pakistan-India relationship."

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