BRITISH prime minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday (5) spoke to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to congratulate him on his recent election triumph, which he said will see the bilateral ties between the two countries "thrive".
Speaking over the phone, the two leaders agreed to stay in touch in the coming days before they meet at the G7 summit in Apulia in Italy next week, where Modi has been invited by the host nation's prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, for the Outreach Sessions.
Sunak is currently campaigning for the UK general election, to be held on July 4, and is hoping his Conservative Party led government is re-elected for a record fourth term. However, polls have shown that the Tories are trailing the Labour who could return to power after 14 years.
“Today I spoke to Narendra Modi to congratulate him on his election victory,” said Sunak in a social media post.
“The UK and India share the closest of friendships, and together that friendship will continue to thrive,” he said, adding in Hindi – “Britain aur Bharat ke beech kareebi mitrata hai, aur saath milkar yeh mitrata aage badhti rahegi (Britain and India share a close friendship, which will be enhanced moving forward in partnership)”.
Modi thanked Sunak in a post in which said the two countries "remain committed to a strong, forward-looking India-UK Comprehensive Strategic Partnership", building upon their shared values and interests.
The readout of the call from 10 Downing Street noted that the two leaders will be seeing each other at the G7 Summit, to be held in Apulia, southern Italy.
“The prime minister began by congratulating Prime Minister Modi on his election victory and wished him every success for his third term. The leaders reflected on the strength of the UK-India relationship and agreed that this will continue to grow in the future,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.
“Both agreed to stay in touch and looked forward to seeing each other at the G7 Leaders' Summit in Italy next week,” the spokesperson added.
There was no mention of the India-UK free trade agreement (FTA), which is stalled in the 14th round of negotiations amid the general election cycles of both countries.
Sunak and Modi met in person at the G20 Summit in New Delhi last September, when they had agreed to accelerate the FTA talks with the hope of signing off before the Indian general election.
However, the trade talks are now expected to resume only after a new UK government is elected on July 5, with the Opposition Labour Party saying it would "get it over the line" if elected to govern.
The two leaders also met on the sidelines of the Conference of Parties (COP) 28 Summit in Dubai in December.
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