President Patil meets Gordon Brown :

India to boost trade ties with UK

BRITAIN: Prime Minister Gordon Brown welcomed Indian President Pratibha Patil to Britain Wednesday on the second day of her state visit which he said showed growing ties between the two nations.

The pair held talks at Brown’s Downing Street office as Patil made the first visit to Britain by an Indian head of state for almost 20 years, discussing a range of issues from business to terrorism, officials said.

“I welcome the President of India to Britain on her state visit.

This is a sign of the strategic partnership that is growing between India and the United Kingdom,” Brown said before their talks.

He highlighted the cultural ties between the countries, noting more than one million people travel between India and Britain each year, about 1.5 million people of Indian origin live here and about 30,000 Indian students study here.

“Relations will grow stronger as we develop closer educational, cultural and economic links between these two great countries,” the prime minister told lawmakers in the House of Commons. London, Thursday, AFP