Amid Covid second wave, UK PM Boris Johnson cancels trip to India, ‘only sensible’ says Johnson
Johnson's trip to India scheduled on April 25-26, which was expected to launch “plans for a transformed India-UK relationship” has been called off, the two sides will be holding a virtual meeting in the coming days.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday cancelled his visit to India, due on April 25-26, in view of the surge in record breaking COVID cases in the country.
The trip has already been rescheduled once – it was originally meant to take place in January but was cancelled due to the UK’s national lockdown.
With no signs of improvement in the surge of cases in India, officials in London and Delhi decided by “mutual agreement” to call off the trip.
“I do think it’s only sensible to postpone, given what’s happened in India, the shape of the pandemic there,” Mr. Johnson told reporters, adding that while it will be ‘frustrating’ to hold the summit via video conference, he hoped to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi “when circumstances allow”, and expressed “massive amounts of sympathy” for India during the crisis.
MEA also issued a statement stating that, “In view of the COVID-19 situation, it has been decided by mutual agreement that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will not visit India next week. The two sides will be holding a virtual meeting in the coming days to launch plans for a transformed India-UK relationship.”
The meeting between the two PMs was expected to boost trade and investment ties, and move the two countries closer to securing a post-Brexit trade agreement.
New coronavirus cases in India have reached more than 273,000 today, a doubling of the peak of new infections during the country’s first wave in September last year.
