Cameron keen to encourage a new ‘special-relationship’ with booming India

Prime Minister David Cameron is in India this week with an impressive ‘entourage’ consisting of Foreign Secretary, William Hague, Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, plus business leaders totaling almost 100 on an official delegation. Following the Queen’s speech, it was clear that ministers for the coalition government recognise how ‘critical’ India is to their objectives and as the world’s second fastest growing economy, after China, it has become a priority of ‘ConLibs’ to enhance the existing relationship between the UK and India.

“What is wrong with our current special relationship with the US” I hear you ask? This government is set to change the focus of our foreign policy from the ‘American poodle’ approach of New Labour’s years which lead us into foolish wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on a ‘neoconservative’ whim to one with a business focus. As Dean Nelson comments in his ‘Telegraph Blog’, ‘when companies are in trouble at home, they explore new, “emerging markets” to grow… when whole states are in a pickle, they look for new “special relationships ”’ and this is exactly the reason for Cameron’s change in focus. And India could be the answer to this pickle. For example, when London’s capital market was looking sorry for itself, it was the Indian Essars of Ruia who came to the rescue with the city’s largest public offering in a long while . Furthermore, Britain’s richest man is Indian, Lakshmi Mittal, with a personal fortune of £22 billion and our biggest manufacturer is Tata, which owns Land Rover, Jaguar and Corus, and is controlled from Mumbai. Cameron is in India to highlight these links with the ‘jewel of the crown’ and encourage them to take us with them on their boom by allowing increased trade links and easing some of its barriers on foreign direct investment in service industries.

However, this ‘special relationship’ is not going to be as easy to create as Cameron or his cabinet members would like. The obvious question that will be on India’s mind is ‘what can a stronger friendship with Britain do for us’? India already boasts 26 relationships with nations around the world and has close economic ties with the US which have flourished since the lucrative billion-dollar civilian nuclear deal between George W Bush and Manmohan Singh. Cameron will need more than just talk of ‘the 300 hundred years of history’ between India and Britain and other similar clichés that have plagued the relations between the two nations.

One thing that is for sure is that this is the start of a new foreign policy outlook for Britain. While its focus will be business, for now, hopefully Britain is starting to realise that it is a nation with interests much wider than before. With an Indian community of more than 2 million, and a Muslim population which is ‘rising 10 times faster than the rest of society’ maybe it is time Britain pursued an international conduct that was more sensitive to its actual population, was more careful when following America’s often heavy-handed and clumsy approach to foreign policy.