Defence Minister Rajnath Singh meets UK PM Rishi Sunak in London to discuss defence, economic cooperation

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London on Wednesday to discuss a wide range of issues.

"We discussed issues pertaining to defence, economic cooperation and how India and UK could work together for strengthening a peaceful and stable global rules-based order," Rajnath Singh wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Besides Sunak, Singh also met UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

"Insightful deliberations with the UK Foreign Secretary, Mr David Cameron, on boosting India-UK ties and deepening cooperation between both the countries," Singh said in a statement on social media.

Singh had left on a two-day visit to London on January 8. He was accompanied by a high-level Ministry of Defence delegation, comprising senior officials from DRDO, Service Headquarters, Department of Defence, and Department of Defence Production.

Earlier, he held a bilateral meeting with UK Defence Minister Grant Shapps in London. According to an official statement, both the ministers discussed a range of defence, security and cooperation matters with particular emphasis on enhancing defence industrial collaboration.

The bilateral defence meeting was followed by the signing of two agreements between India and UK - an MoU on conduct of bilateral international cadet exchange programme, and a Letter of Arrangement between Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and UK's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) on defence collaboration in research and development.

The Union Minister, during his visit, also interacted with top UK Defence industry leaders and CEOs at an event in Trinity House, London.

The UK-India Defence Industry CEOs Roundtable, co-chaired by Rajnath Singh with his UK counterpart Grant Shapps, was attended by a large number of CEOs from UK defence industry, UK MoD officials, Chair, UK India Business Council, and CII India representatives.

Some of the major companies represented were BAE Systems, GE Vernova, James Fisher Defence, Leonardo S.p.A., Martin Baker Aircraft Company Ltd, SAAB UK, Thales UK, Ultra-Maritime Rolls-Royce, ADS Group, and MBDA UK, a press release revealed.

The Roundtable included thematic discussions on strengthening the India-UK defence industrial relationship.

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