Britain’s Indo-Pacific Minister, Catherine West, held wide-ranging talks with a visiting all-party delegation from India led by BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and reaffirmed the UK’s firm support for India’s counter-terrorism mission.
The High Commission of India in London stated following the meeting this week: “The Minister reiterated the UK’s condemnation of terror attacks in India, the priority it attaches to the India relationship in global strategic and economic terms, in contributing to stability in the Indo-Pacific and to global economic growth.
“She said that the UK is with India in its efforts; as a nation that has suffered from terror attacks itself, the UK believes that those who commit acts of terror must be brought to justice. All countries must work towards this end.”
The meeting was followed by an interaction with the Conservative Friends of India (CFIN) at the party headquarters.
The group, in the UK as part of a Europe-wide tour, also held discussions with representatives from some of the leading UK-based think tanks at India House in London. Indian High Commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami laid out the context of the delegation’s visit in the wake of the April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attacks and Operation Sindoor against Pakistan-backed terror camps.
Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “We conveyed our own concern as to why we are here. We also said we are capable of handling Pakistan, which we have handled. We believe in peace and amity, but we also have to take action to save the livelihood of our people against terror. But the world has to understand this cancer of terrorism.”
Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, IISS Senior Fellow and Head of the South and Central Asian Programme, said: “What is most important is that this delegation is seeking to engage with the British government to also seek a global consensus against Pakistan-based terrorism. We have not seen this focus in many years, and it is a welcome initiative by the government.”
The multi-party delegation is made up of members of Parliament Daggubati Purandeswari, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Ghulam Ali Khatana, Amar Singh, Samik Bhattacharya and M. Thambidurai, as well as former minister and author M.J. Akbar and former Ambassador Pankaj Saran. It is one of seven such multi-party teams travelling to major world capitals in a diplomatic outreach to build a global consensus against terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
