Mr Richard Stagg CMG has taken over as the British High Commissioner to India. He succeeds Sir Michael Arthur KCMG, who has moved to Berlin as British Ambassador.

Mr Stagg was until recently Director General of Corporate Affairs at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. After presenting his credentials to the President, Mr Stagg said, “It is a privilege for me to take on the challenge of building on the strengths of the unique UK-India partnership and to carry forward the huge and broadening agenda of bilateral co-operation.

Almost all of the British Government’s International Strategic Priorities involve stepping up our engagement with India. They cover a wide range of sectors. Foreign and defence policy,  counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation, economic and trade policy, science, education, and innovation, environment and sustainable development, as well as vibrant people-to-people contact will work to make the bilateral relationship even more meaningful for both our great nations.”

In advance of the India posting, Mr Richard Stagg independently travelled the length and breadth of the country covering nine states and many cities over six weeks. This gave him an opportunity to experience India first hand. He visited  sophisticated areas of India’s high-tech industry as well as some of the poorest rural areas, where he experienced for himself, the reality of life in a Dalit village, said R Fernandez, Press & Public Affairs, The British Deputy High Commission,  Chennai in a press release.