PM Modi meets Johnson amidst Pakistan’s Kashmir efforts

Biarritz (France): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday met his British counterpart Boris Johnson and UN Secretary General António Guterres amid Pakistan’s efforts to internationalise the Kashmir issue ahead of UN General Assembly session in September.

“PM Modi begins by congratulating PM Johnson on England’s spectacular win in the Third Test of the Ashes a short while ago. The two leaders are discussing ways to strengthen India-UK cooperation,” the Prime Minister’s Office tweeted.

This was the first meeting between the two leaders after Johnson became the PM last month. “PM @narendramodi had a good meeting with UK PM @BorisJohnson on margins of #G7 summit. Discussions focused on strengthening our bilateral ties going forward, inter alia, in trade & investment, defence & security, S&T and education...,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.


According to officials, UN Secretary General’s reference to the Simla Agreement, in one of his earlier statements after India changed the constitutional status of J&K, has limited the scope for Pakistan. While UK has claimed that it did not support China during the UNSC closed-door informal meet on Kashmir on August 16, informed sources told ET that the UK was the only other UNSC member to demand a formal meet on Kashmir.