<span style="color: #222222;">Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Boris Johnson had substantive discussions today on the entire gamut of bilateral ties and exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest during the India UK Virtual Summit.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Briefing media in virtual mode after the meeting, Joint Secretary, Europe West, Sandeep Chakravorty said, the first big deliverable of the meeting was the launch of Roadmap 2030. <b> </b></span><br />'' <b><span style="color: #222222;"> </span></b><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">In line with their vision to achieve a transformational change in bilateral cooperation, both leaders adopted the ambitious Roadmap 2030 to elevate India-UK partnership to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Roadmap will pave the way for a deeper and stronger engagement over the next ten years.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Roadmap lists a number of concrete, forward looking and outcome-oriented activities that both sides have agreed to pursue in five keys areas.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">These areas are people to people contacts, trade and economy, defence and security, climate action and health.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Joint Secretary said, another big ticket announcement of the Summit was the declaration of enhanced trade partnership. The two way trade between India and UK in 2019-20 was 15.4 billion dollars.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He said, the figures do not reflect the true potential of trade between India and UK.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Moreover, Brexit has provided tremendous new opportunities for both countries.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">To seize them and unlock the true potential, the two leaders announced their intent to negotiate a comprehensive and balanced FTA including consideration of an Interim Trade Agreement for delivering early gains.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The ambition is to more than double the bilateral trade by 2030.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Both leaders have also agreed on an early market access package.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Under this UK will open up the fisheries sector for more Indian players, facilitate more opportunities for nurses, recognise Indian seafarers certificates and also enter into a joint dialogue on the Social Security Agreement.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">In return, India has agreed to UK's asks on fruits, medical devices, and mutual recognition of masters degrees and also work towards reciprocal opening of legal services.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The two leaders also discussed the global pandemic situation and ongoing cooperation in the fight against it.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Prime Minister Modi thanked Prime Minister Johnson for the prompt medical assistance provided by the UK in the wake of severe second wave in India.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">UK was one of the first to respond, sending critical medical equipment including Oxygen concentrators, cylinders, ventilators, and oxygen plants.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The successful vaccine partnership through the Oxford-AstraZaneca-SII collaboration was highlighted.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">They agreed to expand partnership on vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics on COVID19 and beyond through joint research including on nasal vaccines, regulatory and clinical trial cooperation.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">An MoU announcing the launch of a new India-UK Global Innovation Partnership was signed at the Virtual Summit.  </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Another MoU on Migration and Mobility Partnership was also signed.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said, he had a very productive Virtual Summit with his UK counterpart Boris Johnson.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">In a series of tweets, Mr Modi said an ambitious Roadmap 2030 has been adopted for elevating India-UK ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He welcomed launch of an Enhanced Trade Partnership as a roadmap to a comprehensive FTA, with a target to more than double the bilateral trade by 2030.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Mr Modi said, they also discussed ongoing cooperation on COVID-19 pandemic and reiterated commitment to ambitious climate action to meet Paris goals in the run-up to COP26.</span><br />''