British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday cancelled his three-day trip to India starting on April 25 due to surge in corona virus cases in the country.
Ironically, he had put off his Republic Day trip to India due to rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in his own country. He was the chief guest for the Republic Day function (January 26) of India.
According to External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, he will now hold a virtual meeting with his Indian counterpart later this month. Johnson was under intense pressure from the Labour Party to cancel his India visit and discuss the matter with Prime Minister Modi online.
The proposed visit to India by Boris Johnson was his first outside Europe after his victory in December 2019 Parliamentary elections.
Incidentally, in between these two days (Republic Day and April 25) the English cricket team undertook a two-month long tour to India in which it played four Test matches, 5 Twenty-20s and three ODIs.
Not only that, India had resumed international flights to and from the United Kingdom in the first week of January after suspending it for over a fortnight.
It is generally believed that the UK variant of corona virus is wreaking havoc in India as initially many passengers were tested positive after entering the country.
In the last 24 hours, India reported 2,73,000 new cases and 1,619 deaths from the pandemic. The national capital Delhi and the financial capital Mumbai are among the worst hit cities.
The only country which Prime Minister Modi visited since the last year corona upsurge and subsequent lockdown was Bangladesh on March 26-27 last where he was the chief guest in the function organised to mark the 50th anniversary of the creation of that country.
