The Prime Minister or Great Britain Boris Johnson has shelved his plan of visiting India on April 26th 2021 in view of the ongoing pandemic crisis in India. The United Kingdom also added India to its “Red List”, which means it is effectively restricting all travel to the UK from India. Any UK residents who will be returning to the UK from India will have to undergo a 10 day quarantine upon arrival. India has been reporting over 2 lakh new positive cases over the past 4-5 days and many countries have begun restricting travel to and from India.
Mr. Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister was quoted saying that the decision to cancel his India trip was the sensible option seeing as the country battles its second war with the Covid-19 virus. The Health Minister of UK Matt Hancock revealed while speaking in the House of Commons that India has been put on UK’s “Red List” thereby stopping all travel to and from India. Mr. Matt Hancock also publicized information regarding 103 cases of coronavirus infected patients with the “Indian variant” of Covid-19 virus which was identified in the UK earlier this year. The Health Minister was also quoted saying the majority of the 103 positive cases from the Indian variant of Covid-19 were identified in people who had travelled internationally prior to testing positive.
Sponsored LinksMr. Matt Hancock said adding India to the Red List of travel was a vital yet difficult decision to make and that the decision was made on precautionary grounds after analysing the data. “This means anyone who is not a UK or Irish citizen… cannot enter the UK if they have been in India in the previous 10 days,” he said. The new rules will be in effect staring Friday i.e. 23rd April 2020 and the rules will be enforced in a strict and orderly fashion. India is the latest to be added to the Red List of UK which includes around 40 badly hit nations grappling with the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Prime Minister of UK was initially scheduled to visit India in January as the chief guest of the Republic Day celebrations held on January 26th. Mr. Boris Johnson had cancelled his trip to India as the UK was facing a crisis situation as it was severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic second wave since the end of November. The Indian delegate also confirmed the cancellation of Mr. Johnson’s visit was a “mutually agreed” decision in view of the prevalent Covid-19 situation. A virtual meeting is planned in the coming days to launch plans for renovated India-UK relationship ties.
Sponsored LinksThe Prime Ministers of both countries Mr. Narendra Modi and Mr. Boris Johnson have “attached the highest importance to taking the UK-India partnership to its fullest potential” – a statement quoted. In December last year, the Foreign Ministries of the 2 global superpowers had had meetings held in Delhi and the agenda included discussions on 5 key areas – Trade, Defence, Security, Connecting People and Climate & Health. With both countries agreeing to co-operate with each other in the aspect of Covid-19 vaccines, they also shook hands and established the foundation elements of a 10 year India-UK bilateral ties roadmap. The political ties between the 2 countries have been getting stronger in the bond under the helms of Narendra Modi and Boris Johnson.
While the United Kingdom is slowly easing restrictions on lockdowns and curfews as it recovers from its second wave, India is just beginning to feel the worst effects of the second wave with no improvement in sight yet. Meanwhile, Australia & New Zealand have opened the Tasman border to allow unrestricted non-quarantine travel between the 2 countries.
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