David Lammy, new UK foreign secretary, could visit India within first month

London: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday named David Lammy as his new foreign secretary, as the newly-appointed premier started the process of forming a Labour Party government after winning the general election with a landslide.

The 51-year-old Labour politician and lawyer, who has been a vocal advocate of strong bilateral ties with India and referred to external affairs minister Dr S. Jaishankar as a “friend”, told India Global Forum in London last week that he intends to visit India within the first month of office if his party is elected to govern in Thursday’s polls.

“Look forward to continuing our engagement and strengthen the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” Dr Jaishankar posted on X, in his congratulatory message.

In his post after being appointed to one of the highest offices in the UK government, Lammy said: “It is the honour of my life to be appointed Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs.

“The world faces huge challenges, but we will navigate them with the UK's enormous strengths. We will reconnect Britain for our security and prosperity at home.”Last week, referring to the missed Diwali 2022 deadline set by former prime minister Boris Johnson for the India-UK free trade agreement (FTA), he pointed out that “many Diwalis have come and gone without a trade deal and too many businesses have been left waiting".

"My message to [Finance] Minister [Nirmala] Sitharaman and [Trade] Minister [Piyush] Goyal is that Labour is ready to go. Let’s finally get our free trade deal done and move on,” he said.

Describing India as a “priority” for the party and an economic, technological and cultural “superpower”, Lammy had sought to set the tone for his future tenure in a Labour-led Cabinet as foreign secretary.

“With Labour, the days of Boris Johnson reciting that old verse from Rudyard Kipling in Asia are over. If I recite a poem in India, it will be Tagore... because with a superpower like India the areas of cooperation and the areas for learning are limitless,” he said.

From a wider foreign policy perspective, Lammy stressed on a “free and open Indo-Pacific" working in partnership with India.

“We stand for a rules-based order and against those who wish to redraw borders by force with a new form of imperialism, like [Russian President] Mr Putin in Europe; and those in Asia who wish to impose their will on their neighbours denying them free choices,” he said.

“Europe and Asia are not two separate worlds... In this challenging environment, Britain will remain and seek to ramp up the security partnership with India - from military to maritime security, from cyber to critical and emerging technologies, from defence and industrial cooperation to supply chain security,” Lammy added.  Earlier this year, when he launched the Labour Indians diaspora outreach organisation in the Parliament complex, Lammy had first committed that his party will “finish the job” of an FTA with India, which aims to enhance the GBP 38.1 billion bilateral partnership but is stalled in the 14th round of negotiations.

“We also wanted to take the message across that we see the trade agreement as the floor, not the ceiling in the relationship with India because there’s a lot more we can do across all areas,” he said.