Increasing intolerance towards minorities, and other sources of domestic tension will be some of the topics that will be raised by the British government during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the UK next week, a senior British Minister confirmed.

In a briefing ahead of the high profile visit, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond responded to a specific question about whether the issues raised in the recent Moody’s Analytics report relating to the “belligerent provocation of various Indian minorities,” saying that they would indeed raise these matters, talking about issues of mutual concern.

“I am sure Prime Minister Modi will have issues that he will want to raise around the Indian Diaspora in the UK and I am sure Prime Minister Cameron will want to ask about some of the issues you mentioned because they are clearly relevant to Prime Minister Modi’s plans for the development of the Indian economy and the opening of India to the outside world, and the securing of India’s sustainable development,” Hammond said on Thursday.

Modi’s visit to the UK, follows that of Chinese President Xi Jinping, during which £40 billion worth of deals were agreed, including a £6-billion Chinese investment to build two nuclear reactors at Hinckley Point C. Hammond said that given the “mature” nature of the relationship between India and the UK there were unlikely to be any standout big-ticket deals, but more medium-sized projects announced between governments. “Different countries do things in different ways, because [India’s] economy has a very large and important private sector many of the deals will be commercial and private sector deals rather than government to government. However, he highlighted defence — including greater defence equipment involvement in the Make in India campaign, and further collaboration on Hawk trainer jets — and civil nuclear cooperation.

“Our Prime Minister is clear that he wants to sweep away any obstacles we have had in past to deepening and strengthening the relationship, taking take the approach that if two Prime Ministers agree to do it, we will simply remove the bureaucratic obstacles on both sides and make sure we can see a step change in the way the relationship works,” Hammond said.

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