UNI

London, Nov 15: British Foreign Secretary Magaret Beckett has said that India has become a truly global power and having good relationship with it has become the top policy agenda for her country.

''India is re-emerging as a truly global player. No-one who reads newspapers or watches television news coverage can doubt that basic truth. You can't be a serious commentator on foreign policy today if you aren't looking in the direction of India and China,''  Beckett said while addressing the annual Labour Friends of India (LFIN) lunch gathering here yesterday.

''What the headlines and the articles cannot really get across to those of us who do not live there, however, is the sheer pace of the change that is going on,'' said the Foreign Secretary who recently visited India.

''On this visit I was taken aback, once again, by the speed and the scale of the transformation that is happening there: economic, social and cultural.

''Our (Britain's) relationship with India remains at the very top of the agenda for Britain and for the Labour Party.

That is unquestionably where it deserves to be,'' said Beckett.

Calling India as ''a beacon of democracy, stability and tolerance in a region where these are still the exception'', she said it has now become a vital element of international consensus.

''India has become such an important and central part of the global infrastructure that just about everything that Britain wants to achieve internationally requires us to work in partnership with India.

''That is why we are such strong supporters of India's permanent membership of the UN Security Council and its adequate representation in other international organizations,''  Beckett, who had earlier visited India as as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and as Environment Secretary, said.

Acknowledging the potential of the growing trade relations between the two countries, Ms Beckett said, ''We are the third largest investor in India. During my recent visit I met with a lot of British companies who were investing in India or who were working with Indian companies on joint projects. A lot of what I saw centred on clean technologies and advanced technologies.''

She also touched upon India's emergence as knowledge powerhouse and said, ''Over 20, 000 Indian students will study in Britain this year. Eight years ago that figure stood at only 3000. And if you talk to Vice-Chancellors around the country, you will hear them say that these Indian students are some of the very best that they have.

''The same is true for science. You may remember a special issue of the New Scientist last year which asked the question: Is India the new knowledge superpower? ''Certainly any country that is serious about science -- and we in Britain certainly are -- has to be engaging with Indian scientists. This summer we hosted the first ever Indo-UK Science and Innovation Council, which was followed by three days of science specific events,'' she said.

Beckett also acknowledged the contribution of British Indians in the economy of Britain saying, ''One in fifty people in this country is of Indian origin. But one in every twenty pounds that is generated by our economy is created by British Indians. That is a quite startling contribution.''

The minister said the two countries should work together on many areas that are at the top of the international agenda, including ''counter terrorism, international trade negotiations, counter proliferation, migration, drugs.'' ''The first is counter-terrorism. Terrorists don't recognise any boundaries. So neither can our response,'' she said, adding ''in handling terrorism the two countries can be and are working together by exchanging intelligence, protecting our key installations, sharing surveillance technology.''

''So one of the strongest impressions I took away from my trip to India was of a country that is today an absolutely indispensable strategic partner for Britain,'' she said.