British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday praised his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi’s leadership over the last year and said “India is the right country at the right time ”.
Sunak, the first Indian-origin prime minister of Britain, said the relationship between the UK and India will define the future of the two countries, even more than it is defining the present.
“This country’s scale, diversity and its extraordinary successes means India is the right country at the right time to hold the G20 presidency. I pay tribute to Prime Minister Modi’s leadership over the last year and it’s wonderful to see India showing such global leadership,” Sunak told news agency PTI in an interview days ahead of the G20 summit in Delhi on September 9-10.
In the interview, the British Prime Minister also said that both the countries will work closely through India’s presidency of the G20 to address the biggest challenges the world is facing, from stabilising the global economy to dealing with climate change.
The British premier, PM Modi, US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida and other G20 leaders are set to deliberate extensively on pressing global issues including consequences of the Ukraine war at the G20 summit.
India faces the uphill task of building a consensus on the text to refer to the Ukraine crisis in the G20 leaders’ declaration.
Both Russia and China had agreed to the two paragraphs on the Ukraine conflict in last year’s Bali declaration, but they backtracked from it this year, creating difficulties for India.
“India has taken on the presidency of the G20 at a time when the world is facing multiple challenges,” Sunak said.
“In the last twelve months we’ve seen sharp rise in inflation and economic instability, we’ve witnessed the outbreak of conflict in Sudan, military coups in Niger and Gabon, and the ongoing repression of human rights in Afghanistan and elsewhere,” the 43-year-old leader of the Conservative Party added.
Sunak said he is looking forward to meeting Prime Minister Modi and deliberating on how collaboration between India and the UK helps in dealing with various global challenges.
“When I meet Prime Minister Modi again this week it will be an opportunity to speak about some of the global challenges we face, and the huge role that the UK and India have to play in addressing them,” he said.
