Britain will support India to build its own fighter jets in a bid to reduce its reliance on Russian weapon supplies, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday on a visit to New Delhi.
Johnson also said Britain was also creating an India-specific open general export license to slash delivery times for defence items. Only the European Union and the United States currently have such licences.
But he stopped short of putting pressure on his Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to strengthen his position against Russian President Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine.
On his first visit to India as UK prime minister, Johnson discussed with Modi ways to boost security ties with India, which buys more than half of its military hardware from Russia.
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