From Khalistani threats to visiting a temple, here's what UK PM Rishi Sunak said after arriving in India

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in New Delhi on Friday (September 8) to attend the G20 Summit being held on September 9 and 10. He is accompanied by his wife Akshata Murty.

He was accorded a warm welcome at the airport by Union Minister Ashwini Choubey, British High Commissioner to India Alex Ellis and senior diplomats.

Shortly after landing in the national capital, the UK PM made some important remarks on various subjects one being the concerns around pro-Khalistan extremism.

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This is Sunak's very first visit to India after he assumed office in October last year.

‘No form of extremism acceptable,’ says Sunak

Sunak asserted that no form of extremism or violence is acceptable in the United Kingdom and the government in his country is working closely with India to tackle Khalistani extremism.

"No form of extremism or violence like that is acceptable in the UK. And that's why we are working very closely with the Indian government to particularly tackle 'PKE' Pro-Khalistan Extremism,” he said in a conversation with news agency ANI.

"Our security Minister recently was just in India talking to his counterparts. We have working groups together to share intelligence and information so that we can root out this kind of violent extremism. It's not right and I won't tolerate it in the UK," he added.

‘I am a proud Hindu’

The British Prime Minister, while expressing his pride for his Hindu roots, said that he hopes he finds the time to visit a temple during his stay in India.

“I am a proud Hindu. That's how I was raised, that's how I am. Hopefully, I can visit the Mandir while I am here for the next couple of days. We just had Rakshabandhan, so from my sister and my cousin, I have all my Rakhis,” he said.

“I didn't have time to celebrate Janmashtami. But hopefully, as I said I can make up for that if we visit a Mandir this time,” he added.

“It is something that is important to me. I think faith is something that helps everybody who has faith in their lives, particularly when you have these stressful jobs like I do. Having faith gives you resilience, gives you strength that is important and it provides an outlook on life which I find particularly valuable,” Sunak further added.

He also called his visit to India 'fantastic' and said that he has enjoyed his first few hours here.

“It is fantastic for me to be back in India. Obviously, it's personally very special for me to be here, particularly with Akshata, and we thoroughly enjoyed the first few hours of our trip so far,” he said.

“Well you know obviously you know my wife is from Bangalore, we got married in Bangalore. We used to spend lots of time together before we had children in Delhi and were trying to figure out if we can go to one of our old favourite restaurants this evening,” Sunak said.

‘Will make sure G20 under India's presidency achieves success’

Sunak said that the G20 has been a huge success for India and it is the "right country at the right time to be hosting this”.

"I'm very keen to support Prime Minister Modi and making sure that this G20 is an enormous success for India which I know it will be and this has been a great year for India more generally," he said.

“G20 has been a huge success for India. India is the right country at the right time to be hosting this. I feel we are going to have a very good couple of days of deliberations and decisions made,” the British Prime Minister added while highlighting that the coming two days will witness hectic deliberations.

‘FTA made enormous progress, still hard work to go’

While talking about the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) under discussion between India and the United Kingdom, the UK PM said that the agreement has made “enormous progress” but there is "still hard work to go.”

"Both Modi ji and I are keen to see a comprehensive and ambitious trade deal concluded between our two countries. Both of us think there is a good deal to be done. But trade deals always take time, they need to work for both countries. Although we have made enormous progress there is still hard work to go," he said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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