It's special as son-in-law of India: Sunak on visit to Delhi for G20 summit

Rishi Sunak said on Friday that his visit to New Delhi for the G20 Leaders Summit is obviously special as he joked about being referred to as the soninlaw of India as the first British Prime Minister of Indian heritage and married to an Indian in Akshata MurtySpeaking to reporters in a huddle on his flight to New Delhi the 43yearold British Indian leader said he was excited to be back in India a country that is very near and dear to me He is joined on the visit by his wife the daughter of Infosys cofounder Narayana Murthy and is scheduled for bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the summitIm heading to the G20 Summit with a clear focus Stabilising the global economy Building international relationships Supporting the most vulnerable tweeted Sunak as he embarked on the threeday tourIts obviously special I saw somewhere that I was referred to as Indias soninlaw which I hope was meant affectionately he told reporters travelling with himThe RussiaUkraine conflict has been flagged as a key topic on the agenda for the UK during the summit discussions with Downing Street saying Indias role and influence is vitalOnce again Vladimir Putin is failing to show his face at the G20 He is the architect of his own diplomatic exile isolating himself in his presidential palace and blocking out criticism and reality The rest of the G20 meanwhile are demonstrating that we will turn up and work together to pick up the pieces of Putins destruction Sunak told reportersHis Downing Street spokesperson said the UK will use every opportunity to show its support for Ukraine and further foster global support as wellIndia has a vital role to play as the worlds largest democracy in calling out Russias assault on human rights and indeed democracy itself We will use meetings with Modi or elsewhere to encourage them to use that influence to bring an end to Putins brutal invasion Sunaks spokesperson saidThe IndiaUK free trade agreement FTA negotiations are likely to also feature highly during the ModiSunak bilateral discussions having just completed 12 rounds of negotiations but with no set timeframe for its conclusionSeparately Downing Street has indicated that there will be no changes to the UK immigration policy as part of the deal though shortterm business visas are up for discussion as part of the trade talksOfficial UK government statistics peg the IndiaUK bilateral trade relationship as worth around GBP 36 billion in 2022 expected to be significantly enhanced with what both sides have branded as a deep and forwardlooking FTAModi and Sunak last met on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Hiroshima Japan in May A month later during UKIndia Week in London Sunak had said he cant wait to meet his Indian counterpart againPrime Minister Modiji and I agree theres huge potential here Were making great progress together on the 2030 Roadmap and we want to strike a truly ambitious trade deal that benefits both our nations bringing tremendous opportunities to businesses and consumers both in India and here at home he said at the timeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever