British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to India next week is cancelled due to the country’s escalating coronavirus crisis, a joint statement by the UK and India announced on Monday.
“In the light of the current coronavirus situation, prime minister Boris Johnson will not be able to travel to India next week,” the statement, released by Downing Street, said.
“Instead, prime ministers [Narendra] Modi and Johnson will speak later this month to agree and launch their ambitious plans for the future partnership between the UK and India," the statement added.
On his part, Johnson said it was "only sensible" to cancel his trip to India, according to BBC.
Asked about the cancelled visit, the prime minister affirmed it was "frustrating" but "Narendra Modi and I have basically come to the conclusion that, very sadly, I won't be able to go ahead with the trip."
"I do think it's only sensible to postpone, given what's happened in India, the shape of the pandemic there," he claimed.
The prime minister added that countries around the world had "a massive amount of sympathy with India, what they're going through", and that the UK's relationship with India was of "huge importance."
Notably, India has been reporting more than 200,000 coronavirus cases daily and has been added to the UK's "red list", which means that people returning from there must quarantine in a hotel for 10 days.
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