Britain for better ties with India

A new council headed by Commerce Minister Kamal Nath and British Trade and Investment Minister Patricia Hewitt, set up to promote economic relations between the UK and India, could yield to a new phase in the Indo-British economic ties, said Michael Arthur, High Commissioner of Britain in New Delhi.

Arthur said the high point of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the UK and his meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair was the creation of an economic and trade council, which would be an institutional body to address issues of trade and investment and would meet annually.

A decision was also taken during the visit to increase air services between India and Britain in the light of the under-capacity and over-demand for seats. The number of direct flights between Britain and India could double by next year, he said.

He said agencies like Goldman Sachs had great hopes from India and expected the bilateral economic agenda to leap forward.

He said as the web supporting this relationship, India visits were due from at least four senior British ministers in the next one month""Environment Minister Margaret Becket, Education Minister David Mili-band, Defence Minister Goeff Hoon and Development Cooperation Minister Gare-th Thomas. The British Chief of Army Staff was also slated to visit India in two weeks.

He said Britain wanted to have a more intense engagement with India in areas like education, for which there was a great demand in India. He also said while Britain was for greater representation of India in decision-making in the G-8, expanding the membership of G-8 was not immediately on the agenda. He said Britain fully supported the presence of India on the UN Security Council.