Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 29 (ANI): British Prime Minister David Cameron visited the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi to pay homage on Thursday in New Delhi.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave Cameron a warm welcome at the Indian Presidential Place.

He also met India’s Foreign Minister S M Krishna with his delegation to hold discussions.

Cameron said he was also looking to strengthen cultural ties along with a push for more bilateral economic deals.

Cameron leads the biggest trade delegation in modern times to India as a statement of intent amid talk of Britain wanting to forge a ’special relationship’ with India — a phrase more closely associated with Britain’s ties with the United States.

As a major step towards boosting defence ties, Cameron sealed a major 1.1 billion USD aircraft deal, on Wednesday, enabling the UK’s premier defence manufacturers, British Aerospace (BAE) Systems, to supply 57 Hawk Jets to the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy.

India belongs to the ‘BRIC’ group of rapidly growing emerging economies along with China, Brazil and Russia.

Cameron has often lamented that Britain trades more with Ireland than it does with all the BRICs combined and he has vowed to remedy that with vigorous pro-trade diplomacy.

His visit is not intended to yield any immediate deals between the two governments, but is rather seen as the dawn of a long-term British strategy to focus relations with India on economic exchanges.

Cameron is later scheduled to meet various Indian leaders and also hold bilateral discussions with Prime Minister Singh. (ANI)