Rajnath Singh Two-Day UK Visit: Bilateral Meeting With Grant Shapps

Q: Q. 3. With whom was Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visiting Britain for a bilateral meeting in January 2024?

Answer:- Defence Minister Grant Shapps

Updated: 08 Jan 2024

3 Min Read

Rajnath Singh Two-Day UK Visit: Bilateral Meeting With Grant Shapps

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will leave for a two-day visit to the United Kingdom (UK) on January 8, 2024. A high-level delegation from the Defence Ministry will also be accompanying Rajnath Singh. This will include senior officers of DRDO, Service Headquarters, Defence Department and Defence Production Department.

Bilateral meeting with UK Defence Minister Grant Shapps:

During his visit, Rajnath Singh will hold a bilateral meeting with UK counterpart Grant Shapps. They are expected to discuss wide-ranging issues of defence, security and industrial cooperation.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to meet British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Rajnath Singh is also expected to hold a meeting with Britain's foreign minister, David Cameron. Cameron is the former Prime Minister of Britain. Cameron is currently the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs in the UK.
Rajnath Singh will also interact with UK defence industry CEOs and industry leaders and meet the Indian community in London.

India-UK defence ties will become stronger:

Rajnath Singh's talks with Defence Minister Shapps will mainly focus on sharing critical technology and expanding bilateral industrial defence cooperation.
The discussions are anticipated to cover collaborative efforts in developing combat aircraft and various military platforms.
Rajnath Singh and Grant Shapps are also expected to discuss the situation in the Indo-Pacific, West Asia and Ukraine.

Military exercises between India and Britain:

Ajeya Warrior

The 7th edition of Exercise Ajay Warrior was conducted last year in 2023 between the armies of India and England.
The exercise was conducted from 27 April to 11 May 2023 at Salisbury Plain, United Kingdom.
Exercise Ajeya Warrior is India's biennial training exercise with the United Kingdom, conducted alternately in the United Kingdom and India.
The previous edition of this exercise was conducted in Chaubatiya, Uttarakhand in October 2021.

India-UK Free Trade Agreement:

In 2022, India and Britain started formal free trade agreement (FTA) talks. The two countries are considering an interim free trade area, which would result in reduced tariffs on most goods.
India and Britain agreed to a limited trade deal to reduce tariffs on a small group of goods besides easing rules for select services.
Furthermore, they agreed to avoid "sensitive issues" and focus on areas where there is greater complementarity.
The agriculture and dairy sectors are considered sensitive sectors for India in trade talks.
Besides, a target was also set to double the trade between India and Britain by the year 2030.

About Free Trade Agreement (FTA):

FTA is an agreement between two or more countries to reduce import and export barriers.
Under a free trade policy, goods and services can be bought and sold across international borders with little or no government tariffs, quotas, subsidies or barter.
Free trade stands in contrast to trade protectionism or economic isolationism.
FTAs can be classified as Preferential Trade Agreements, Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreements and Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (CEPA).