Aiming to expand their cooperation in
health sector, India and the UK on Monday held
talks to indentify more partnerships at national and state levels to further
the collaboration.
Health and Family Welfare Secretary Lov Verma held talks
with Permanent Secretary, Department of Health, the UK, Una O Brien and decided
to expand the activities under the MoU both the countries had signed in 2013,
an official statement said. The priority of the partnership between the two
governments has been improvement of
maternal and child health and reducing the burden of communicable diseases.
"The purpose of the bilateral
meeting was to further expand the activities under the MoU and the timelines to
indentify more institutional partnerships to further the collaboration in
specific areas, to suggest nominations to a Joint Working Group...," it
said.
They also decided to look at the governance
arrangements to manage the action and implementation plans under the MoU and
discuss other areas of mutual interest, it said. The MoU comprises development of a joint work
programme with a set of defined, time-specified activities over a five- year
period, which aim to improve collaboration between India and the UK, the
statement said.
Indian–British
relations are
foreign relations between India and the United Kingdom. India has a high
commission in London and two consulates-general in Birmingham and Edinburgh.
The United Kingdom has a high commission in New Delhi and five deputy high
commissions in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata. Both
countries are full members of the Commonwealth of Nations. Since 1947,
relations between the two countries have been mostly friendly and there are
many areas in which both India and the UK seek stronger ties for mutual
benefit.
There are also strong cultural and social
ties between the two nations. In India, English
is one of the official languages, and Cricket is the most popular sport. In
the UK, Indian Cuisine is hugely popular. Britain imports most of its tea from India, and there are a number of words of
Indian origin in the English language. India
is the third largest investor in the British economy. The UK has an ethnic Indian population of over
1.6 million. Prime Minister David Cameron described Indian – British
relations as the "New Special Relationship" in 2010.