Highlighting the importance of its ties with India, Britain has said it is keen to 'celebrate and build on the historic links' with New Delhi.
"Britain's role as a cultural, economic and political hub could only be burnished by playing to its strengths through its relationship with India, the US and EU," David Miliband, new British foreign secretary, told the Financial Times.
The 41-year-old Miliband, who is one of Britain's youngest foreign secretaries, said, "We should celebrate and
build on the historic links that we have with countries like India. I mean, I made a point when I was first Minister for
Schools and then when I was Secretary of State for the environment of going to India.
"I went there because I thought politicians of my generation who didn't understand what the world looked like through Indian eyes weren't going to understand the world very well, and what I saw there was a relationship between two
countries that obviously had a colonial history, had genuinely become a partnership of equals."
He said in the period between his visit as Minister for Schools and Secretary of State for the Environment, "India
became an investor into the UK. That is one definition of a partnership of equals. And we are a P-5 member (in the UN
Security Council). And I think those are obviously responsibilities, but those are huge opportunities to us and we bring the strengths of this office to bear on them."