EAM Jaishankar holds talks with PM Keir Starmer, ministers in UK

Jaishankar said bilateral cooperation and the UK’s perspective on the Russia-Ukraine conflict were among the topics covered during his meeting with the UK PM.

New Delhi: India and the United Kingdom have exchanged views on the Russia-Ukraine war amid the growing rift between Europe and the United States over the conflict.

New Delhi and London also discussed ways to expand India-UK economic ties, even as the two sides recently relaunched the negotiation for a bilateral trade deal.

Just days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and American President Donald Trump had a verbal duel in the White House, India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar discussed Russia’s “special military operations” in Ukraine with United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer as well as his counterpart in the UK government, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, during a visit to London on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Discussed taking forward our bilateral, economic cooperation and enhancing people to people exchanges. PM Starmer also shared UK’s perspective on the Ukraine conflict,” Jaishankar wrote on X.

He also conveyed to Starmer the greetings from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“We discussed the entire gamut of bilateral ties, especially our focus on strategic coordination, political cooperation, trade deal negotiation, education, technology, mobility and people-to-people exchanges. Agreed to formulate the next steps to further strengthen and structure them,” Jaishankar posted on the social media platform after his meeting with Lammy at Chevening House. “We exchanged views on regional and global issues including the Ukraine conflict, West Asia, Bangladesh and the Commonwealth.”

“In an uncertain and volatile world, India-UK ties contribute to stability and prosperity,” added the external affairs minister.

Jaishankar’s visit to London for meetings with his counterpart and the UK prime minister was New Delhi’s third major engagement with Europe this month, amid the growing rift between the Trump Administration in Washington, DC and the countries across the Atlantic Ocean, not only on the issue of the Russia-Ukraine conflict but also over tariffs.

Modi played host to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in New Delhi last week. The two leaders set the target to conclude the protracted negotiation for the bilateral Free Trade Agreement by the end of the year, apart from agreeing to explore a defence and security partnership. The prime minister also recently hosted Princess Astrid of Belgium, and they discussed new partnerships in areas such as trade, technology, defence and agriculture.

After Zelenskyy’s spat with Trump and US Vice President J D Vance in the White House over the peace deal with Russia, Starmer led an effort to mobilise the leaders of Europe to extend support to Ukraine, even as the US stopped military aid to the beleaguered Eastern European nation. Leyen said that Europe must turn Ukraine into a "steel porcupine" with urgent and additional arms deliveries.

New Delhi has been maintaining that the conflict must be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy, not on the battlefield.