India and Britain want to be closer in trade and in the Indo-Pacific – with an eye each on China

Name: In India, ‘cow dung lights’ for Diwali festival become part of country’s ‘boycott China campaign
Uploaded: 2020-12-18T02:00:13.000Z
Duration: 3 min 6 s
Description: In India, ‘cow dung lights’ for Diwali festival become part of country’s ‘boycott China campaign

British foreign secretary Raab’s visit to India this week will be followed by a high-level visit from Prime Minister Johnson

Closer economic and security relations are in the offing, analysts say, all while New Delhi and London are at loggerheads with Beijing over a range of issues

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India's foreign minister S. Jaishankar (right) and Britain’s foreign secretary Dominic Raab in New Delhi on December 15. Photo: AFP

Kunal Purohit

Published: 10:00am, 18 Dec 2020Updated: 11:11pm, 18 Dec 2020

India and Britain are stepping up their relationship, with a 10-year “road map’”, a possible free-trade agreement and greater cooperation in the Indo-Pacific in the offing – all with an eye on China.

British foreign secretary Dominic Raab’s three-day visit to India this week will be followed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who accepted New Delhi’s invitation to be the chief guest in the country’s Republic Day celebrations on January 26. The high-level engagement comes as London has been at loggerheads with Beijing over the imposition of the national security law in Hong Kong as well as the banning of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from its 5G network, while Indian troops have been locked in an often-violent border stand-off with Chinese troops since May.

Analysts say New Delhi and London are looking to each other for support as they stand up to Beijing, with an eye on the economic and security implications – prompted by a shift in British foreign policy towards China.

“Until recently, the UK’s policy on China has not been very clear – it had, in the past, entered into cooperation with China on critical strategic sectors like nuclear energy and its stance on Huawei was not very clear for a while,” said Dr Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, distinguished fellow and head of the Nuclear and Space Policy Initiative at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation.

In 2015, then British chancellor George Osborne claimed Sino-British ties had entered a “golden era” and London was Beijing’s “best partner in the West” – but, as Rajagopalan points out, times have changed. “Now you are seeing a new phase in the UK with regard to its China policy, and that is welcome in India – to see that there are some important shifts taking place and a confirmation that the two countries are on the same page in dealing with China.”

In August, Britain joined forces with the rest of its Five Eyes allies – Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States – to condemn the Hong Kong government’s decision to disqualify pro-democracy candidates and postpone the city’s Legislative Council elections. Earlier this year, the Johnson administration also unveiled plans to create a “D-10” group of democracies that would include India and offer “an alternative pool of 5G equipment”, a move widely seen as being aimed at China.

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In India, ‘cow dung lights’ for Diwali festival become part of country’s ‘boycott China campaign

Dr Yogesh Joshi, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Institute of South Asian Studies, said the shift might have been the result of a realisation that “the Chinese challenge to American hegemony will impact Britain too.”