Jul 29, 2010, 18:54 GMT
New Delhi - India and Britain agreed Thursday to give a new boost to their strategic partnership and pledged to double trade and intensify counter-terrorism cooperation.
British Prime Minister David Cameron held talks with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh in New Delhi which focussed on trade and security after which the countries signed an accord to expand cultural cooperation.
'With Prime Minister Cameron's visit, we have set in place a new momentum to drive our strategic partnership forward,' Singh told reporters addressing a joint briefing with Cameron after the talks.
'We have agreed on specific initiatives in the areas of economy and trade, science and technology, energy, education, defence, culture and people to people contacts,' he said.
Britain and India also decided to set up a bilateral CEO forum and an infrastructure group. Doubling two-way trade from the current volume of 12.8 billion dollars in the next five years was another key outcome of the summit.
'In the last two days (of my visit) we have well and truly put in place the basis for an enhanced and enduring partnership,' Cameron said.
Cameron said he made 'huge progress' on three purposes of his 'landmark' visit - to galvanize trade ties, bolster security relations and strengthen people-to-people contacts.
He said London would continue to lobby for India to take a place on the UN Security Council and push for the completion of the long- delayed EU-India free trade pact at the earliest.
Global security particularly with regard to Afghanistan and Pakistan were another area of discussions.
Cameron cited the a defence deal worth 799 million dollars to supply 57 Hawk trainer jets to India and Britain's permitting exports of civil nuclear technology and expertise for the first time -- as headways on the commercial front.
Cameron, who described the two-day trip as his 'jobs mission,' at the start of his visit called for increasing trade and business ties to help Britain's economic recovery.
He had said that he wanted to make Britain 'the partner of choice for India.'
Cameron arrived with a 90-member delegation, the largest to travel in India in recent memory, in the southern city of Bangalore on Wednesday.
Before holding summit-talks with Singh on Thursday evening, he met other Indian leaders such as President Pratibha Patil and participated in a business summit organized by India's industry chambers.
Cameron's trip to India - a British colony before it gained independence in 1947 - was his first to an Asian country as prime minister. After concluding his visit, Cameron left India late Thursday night to return home.
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