Prime minister Manmohan Singh today met his British counterpart Gordon Brown and discussed the current global economic downturn and restructuring of international financial architecture as well as the issue of climate change.
The meeting, which lasted 45 minutes on the sidelines of the G-8 summit here, gave the two leaders an opportunity to exchange views and perspectives on steps for a quick recovery of the global economy against the backdrop of the current downturn.
Briefing reporters on the meeting, the second in three months after their earlier engagement this year in London in April, an official spokesman said it also touched on the issue of restructuring of the global financial architecture.
On climate change, the two leaders reflected on taking up joint development of green technology projects.
Singh gave Brown his perspective on India's national action plan on climate change and provided him a copy of it. India's questions and answers preparatory to Copenhagen summit were also mentioned.
The prime minister invited Brown to participate in a conference on climate change in Delhi in October this year where technology transfer and development would be discussed.
After a one-on-one meeting, Singh was joined in the discussions by national security adviser MK Narayanan, foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon and prime minister's special envoy on Climate Change Shyam Saran.
The Indo-UK relationship is broadbased and the two countries have a strategic partnership which is multifaceted with economic and trade dimensions. The two countries cooperate in counter-terrorism and science and technology, HRD and various other areas.
The UK also supported India's bid for a permanent membership of an expanded UN Security Council. The two countries also have consultations at the highest level with annual summits.
India and Britain have emerged as the third largest investors in each other's country. The two-way trade between the two countries amounted to 9 billion pounds apart from 4 billion pounds in services. The trade target for next year has been pegged at 10 billion pounds.
