New Delhi:
Former Prime Minister of Britain Lord David Cameron today spoke about ‘The India Century’ at the NDTV World Summit in New Delhi. During his interaction, he mentioned about his prediction of Britain having an India-origin prime minister come true.
The former prime minister also spoke about why he firmly believes the 21st Century is indeed a defining one as India emerges as a leading global power. Backing India’s bid for a permanent seat the UN Security Council, Lord Cameron said “it is India’s rightful place to be the Security Council, but as these reforms and discussions take time, it is reassuring to see India being a key member of the Quad and G20 groupings and also now regularly being invited the G7 Summit too, as a fellow democracy. These are important for the entire world.”
Remembering his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the diaspora event held at the Wembley Stadium, Lord Cameron said, “Those are moments that hard to forget. As a party leader in the UK, one is used to addressing the largest of gatherings of two to three thousand people. But to go to Wembley Stadium which is packed with more than 85,000 people cheering for Prime Minister Modi as I introduced him was quite remarkable.”
“But another thing I vividly remember, and one that I found out later, is that when I making my speech at Wembley introducing PM Modi, I had made a prediction that the Conservative Party will give the UK its first women prime minister, the first Jewish prime minister, and also the first Indian-origin prime minister. Little did I know that that prediction would come true so soon. That evening there was a young leader sitting way at the back – his name is Rishi Sunak and he went on to become UK’s first Indian-origin PM soon after that prediction.”
Taking about the India-UK partnership, Lord Cameron said he has been a strong advocate of it since the early 2000s. “I had said back in 2005 that the India-UK partnership needs to be given a special status, and ties must be a privileged partnership.”
Praising Rishi Sunak’s leadership as Prime Minister, Lord Cameron said, “I admired him. I thought he was a very good prime minister. He was extremely hard working, highly intelligent, very capable, brilliant chairman (of the Conservative Party) and could bring everyone together. When he asked me to become his foreign secretary, I almost immediately said yes to it.”
“It was a difficult time globally with the war in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East. Being a former PM I knew I could play a part in that and It was generous of him to ask me to be his foreign secretary. He wanted experienced people to be with him. It was a very difficult inheritance for him and the year of three prime ministers was virtually impossible for anyone to recover from. But Rishi brought stability to Britain. He brought inflation down from 11 per cent to 2 per cent, he strengthened our relations with Europe and even with India. He did a very good job and he should be proud of that,” Lord Cameron said.
