British Labour Party leader Ed Miliband will visit India in the first week of October, keeping the United Kingdom’s engagement with the Narendra Modi government at a fast pace. British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will be in India between August 24 and 27 and the Opposition leader will visit within a little over a month from then. Chancellor George Osborne and former Foreign Secretary William Hague had visited India in recent weeks.
Trade has been the thrust in most of these visits as both countries hope to increase bilateral trade from the current levels of $16 billion per annum, but Mr. Miliband’s visit could also be a signal to the Indian-origin voters in U.K. ahead of next year’s election. Mr. Miliband, who became leader of the Labour Party in 2010 at the age of 40, is a potential Prime Ministerial candidate.
Mr. Clegg’s three-city visit will focus on trade in aerospace, retail and education sectors, but Mr. Miliband’s itinerary isn’t worked out yet, according to officials in the British High Commission in Delhi.
