Boris Johnson’s planned visit to India next week has been canceled due to the rising coronavirus crisis in the country, a joint statement by the UK and India announced.
“Given the current coronavirus situation, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not be able to travel to India next week,” the statement, released by Downing Street, said.
‘Instead, premieres [Narendra] Modi and Johnson will speak later this month to agree and unveil their ambitious plans for the future partnership between the UK and India. They will remain beyond regular contact and look forward to meeting in person later this year. ”
As early as Friday, No. 10 insisted that the journey would continue. Johnson, however, came under increasing pressure to recall it.
The prime minister said it was frustrating to have to cancel the trip, but said much of the work could be done remotely before he and Modi could meet in the future.
During a visit to Gloucestershire, Johnson told reporters: ‘The red list is very much a matter for the independent UK health safety agency – they will have to make the decision. But Narendra Modi and I basically came to the conclusion that I, very unfortunately, would not be able to continue the journey. I think it only makes sense to postpone the form of the pandemic there, given what happened in India.
‘Countries around the world, including us, have been through this. I think everyone has a lot of sympathy with India, what they are going through. ‘
New cases of coronavirus in India reached more than 273,000 on Monday, doubling the peak of new infections during the country’s first wave in September last year. Concerns about a coronavirus variant first detected in India in the UK have led some scientists to claim that the country should already be on the “red list” of states subject to the strictest travel restrictions.
Officials said the city is struggling to curb a major surge in Covid-19 cases with hospitals getting out of beds and the oxygen supply low.
No 10 have already scaled down his plans for the trip, which is Johnson’s first major overseas visit since becoming prime minister in 2019.
At the end of last week, Downing Street said that the trip to India would be ‘slightly shorter’ than planned, and that most important meetings would now take place on one day – Monday 26 April.
For many Indians, the announcement underscored the extent of the catastrophic revival of the virus in their country over the past few weeks, which has vanished the prospect of progress towards a free trade agreement between the two countries.
Even before its second wave emerges, Delhi is not thought to be in a hurry to sign a trade agreement unless it would include a promise of more visas for Indian workers, a prospective successive British government refused to concede. .
The Modi government, which earlier this year signaled an early victory over Covid-19, was under pressure to curb public events and control the health crisis, with more than 200,000 new cases being recorded every day, highlighting new infections double. during the country’s first wave in September last year.
On Sunday, shadow communities secretary Steve Reed said the trip should be abandoned because of the situation with Covid. Reed spoke on Sunday about Sky’s Sophy Ridge and said Johnson should abandon his trip because ‘we should all try to set an example in public life’.
He said: ‘There are new variants emerging around the world. The government says people should not travel unless you absolutely have to travel. I can not see why the Prime Minister can not do business with the Indian government through Zoom. ”