India and UK launch tech initiative as new British foreign minister makes his first official visit

Advertisement

Advertise with us

NEW DELHI (AP) — India and the United Kingdom launched a new technology security initiative expected to boost economic growth and deepen collaboration, the two countries announced during the first official visit to India by the new British foreign secretary.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/07/2024 (784 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEW DELHI (AP) — India and the United Kingdom launched a new technology security initiative expected to boost economic growth and deepen collaboration, the two countries announced during the first official visit to India by the new British foreign secretary.

According to the agreement, which was announced late Wednesday, the two countries will work together on crucial technologies, from critical minerals and AI to semiconductors and telecoms. It will also strengthen cooperation on issues like climate, trade, technology and education, according to a statement released by British Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s office.

“This will mean real action together on the challenges of the future from AI to critical minerals. Together we can unlock mutual growth, boost innovation, jobs and investment,” Lammy said.

This photo obtained from the Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar's X account shows British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, left, with Jaishankar in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (X via AP)
This photo obtained from the Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar's X account shows British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, left, with Jaishankar in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (X via AP)

In talks with his counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the two also agreed to boost defense and security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, and discussed global issues including the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to a statement from the Indian Foreign Ministry.

Lammy said his trip to India reflects one of the new government’s top foreign policy priorities: a reset with Europe, both on climate and with the Global South.

Britain’s new Labour Party government, which swept the polls in the July 4 election, says it wants to “reset and relaunch” U.K.-India relations, particularly by restarting formal talks that began in 2022 on a free trade agreement hailed by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a key goal after Britain’s departure from the European Union in 2020.

Lammy also met with Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said he welcomed the new technology security initiative. Modi also said India was looking forward to settling on a free trade agreement in a post on social media platform X.

The trade deal was aimed at doubling the two countries’ trade from its 2022 level of $50 billion by 2030. Johnson famously promised to have a deal done by Diwali in October of that year.

The two countries held 13 rounds of negotiations without a breakthrough before talks were suspended while both nations held 2024 general elections.

___

Associated Press journalist Jill Lawless contributed from London.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Rogers, Telus deny blame for June twister alert barrage

Malak Abas 3 minute read Preview

Rogers, Telus deny blame for June twister alert barrage

Malak Abas 3 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 7:21 AM CDT

Telecom companies say they aren’t to blame for the barrage of tornado alerts Manitobans received during severe thunderstorms in early June.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced in August it would investigate the unusually high number of alerts, and called on the Pelmorex Corp., which operates the national Alert Ready system, along with telecom companies Bell, Rogers and Telus to respond to a number of questions.

They were given until last Friday to describe their possible roles in the creation, receipt, processing or distribution of alerts issued from Environment and Climate Change Canada in the midst of the June 9 storm.

Telus said in its response that it received 133 alert requests targeted to Manitoba created by Environment Canada and forwarded by Pelmorex between 2:35 p.m. June 9 and 3:29 a.m. the following day. While the majority of those messages contained identical information and were automatically suppressed, 17 were ultimately sent out as alerts in Winnipeg.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 7:21 AM CDT

Opaskwayak Cree Nation tabs up to $20 million to get into aerospace, defence manufacturing

Gabrielle Piché 5 minute read Preview

Opaskwayak Cree Nation tabs up to $20 million to get into aerospace, defence manufacturing

Gabrielle Piché 5 minute read 8:12 PM CDT

Darryl Bauer arrived with open ears and a business plan: aims for Opaskwayak Cree Nation to enter aerospace and defence manufacturing, either through acquisition or partnership.

Paskwayak Business Development Corp.’s economic development director carried the physical plan through an aerospace procurement event Wednesday in Winnipeg. The day-long conference drew all levels of government and industry executives.

“There could be significant long-term benefits,” Bauer said of breaking into the sector. “The government’s committing a lot of financial resources.”

Ottawa released a $6.6-billion defence industrial strategy in February.

Read
8:12 PM CDT

Winnipeg is one of nearly 40 municipalities to receive a failing grade from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business in the organization’s inaugural “municipal report card.”

The Manitoba capital ranked 33rd amongst the 66 municipalities assessed, earning an F, with an overall score of 4.84 out of 10.

The report, which the CFIB released on Tuesday, evaluated cost burden, regulatory burden and small-business friendliness using 11 indicators and data collected up to Dec. 31, 2025.

Winnipeg’s grade is a starting point and not the final word, said Brianna Solberg, CFIB’s director for the Prairies and northern Canada.

Suspension on the horizon for Hellebuyck as pre-season set to start

Ken Wiebe 7 minute read Preview

Suspension on the horizon for Hellebuyck as pre-season set to start

Ken Wiebe 7 minute read Yesterday at 6:21 PM CDT

In this high stakes game of chicken, Kevin Cheveldayoff, Connor Hellebuyck or any of the potential suitors for the Winnipeg Jets franchise netminder appear ready to blink.

Read
Yesterday at 6:21 PM CDT

Powerful personal drama provides both bark and bite

Ben Waldman 4 minute read Preview

Powerful personal drama provides both bark and bite

Ben Waldman 4 minute read 4:22 PM CDT

Well before playwright Rafaella Marcus’ words have the chance to entangle us in the stickiness of Sap, the performance space initiates the task in director Elio Zarrillo’s staging of this discomfiting and affecting story of restraint and liberation.

Shortly after the audience takes its seats in four segments surrounding a central channel — a shimmering tunnel containing cellist Grace Morningstar — it becomes clear as actors Hera Nalam and Liz Whitbread make their way around the tight corners of David Oro and Hazel Venzon’s set that certain actions will go unseen unless viewers keeps their heads on a swivel: in a production meant to uproot understanding, a fixed perspective will never do.

In this vulnerable and powerful production from Theatre by the River (105 minutes) the actors meet the excellence of Marcus’s twisty script, which calls for emotionally draining and jolting depictions of a relationship headed down a rocky road.

Nalam plays a young communications pro for a women’s aid charity whose dating life is a work in progress. She’s bright and optimistic, taking notice of elements of nature that nobody else seems to recognize. On her daily commute, she looks out from the bus window in awe of a home overflowing with branches and leaves.

Read
4:22 PM CDT

Seven years sought for serial harasser

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Seven years sought for serial harasser

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Alexander Beaton finished serving a two-year jail sentence for criminally harassing six women and didn’t last two days in the community before he was back at it, sending unwanted obscene messages and videos to a dozen women.

Now prosecutors are seeking a seven-year prison sentence for the 30-year-old Winnipeg man, whose latest string of victims includes a police officer who investigated his earlier crimes.

“He essentially continued (offending) unabated,” Crown attorney Brett Rach told provincial court Judge Malcolm McDonald at a sentencing hearing Friday. “It caused more than a nuisance to these victims — it caused them to fear for their safety.”

Beaton pleaded guilty to 14 charges of criminal harassment, sending indecent communications and breaching court orders for a campaign of harassment waged between 2015 and 2025.

Read
Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT