PHOTO: BHAGYA PRAKASH K.

BACKING FOR INDIA: Union Minister for Commerce and Industries Kamal Nath and British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown at the Partnership Summit organised by the CII in Bangalore on Wednesday. Mr. Brown said his country fully supported India's bid for a permanent seat in an expanded U.N. Security Council. He said it was time to formally recognise the reality of the emerging new world order, and the global community should focus on modernising the U.N.

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BANGALORE: Britain's Prime Minister-in-waiting and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown has expressed the country's support to India's bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. He said this while delivering the keynote address at the Confederation of Indian Industry Partnership Summit here on Wednesday.

To double Britain's exports to India by 2010 and quadruple it by 2020, Mr. Brown said, the U.K. Trade and Investment (UKTI) in India would increase its support to fully fund the Indo-British Partnership Network.

Mr. Brown was all praise for Indian economy's "envious" eight per cent plus growth rate. The U.K. was the fifth largest investor in India and India the third largest investor in Britain. Yet, there was much scope to further improve bilateral ties, he said.

Deepening the links would be the focus of his visit to Mumbai on Friday. British banks and insurance firms wanted India to see Britain as a location of choice. This was in line with the British aim to keep London as the world's largest, most diverse and innovative and most open and well regulated capital market, he said.

Mr. Brown noted that India was one of the engines of the global growth. Britain, he said, should be a full participant and a partner of choice for India.

Education exporter

Education, for Britain, was one of the biggest export earners. He said it had doubled in the last five years, surpassing insurance, oil and aviation. By 2020, it could contribute to over £50 billion a year to the British economy.

On terrorism, Mr. Brown said anti-Americanism should have no place in the fight against terrorism. Terrorist groups with extreme jihadist ideologies could not be allowed to exploit people's grievances to justify a war against the world, he said. "We stand full square against all terrorism and murderous extremists who practise it."

He said that to root out terrorism Britain had doubled its investment in security since September 11, 2001. India and Britain would work together in a "coherent global effort," he added.

He observed that India and Britain had in recent years suffered due to terrorist activities, and said his country was rightly investing in its military, security forces, police and intelligence services both at home and abroad to root out terrorism.

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