Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted his enthusiastic reaction to the news of Narendra Modi’s election victory, and followed it up with a telephone call to Mr. Modi inviting him to visit the United Kingdom.
“Congratulations @ narendramodi on victory in India’s elections. Keen to work together to get the most from UK-India relationship,” the official Twitter account for Prime Minister David Cameron’s 10 Downing Street office said.
The British Prime Minister also invited Mr. Modi — who was on the U.K.’s boycott list from 2002 to 2012 for his failure to prevent the 2002 Gujarat riots — to visit the United Kingdom.
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“Mr. Modi said he would be delighted to accept the Prime Minister’s invitation to visit the U.K. Both leaders agreed on the importance of the U.K.-India relationship and agreed to work together to strengthen it in the months ahead,” Downing Street said.
Foreign Secretary William Hague congratulated Mr. Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party, and hoped the two countries would forge “an even closer partnership with India in the months ahead.”
Douglas Alexander MP, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary in a brief message also congratulated Mr. Modi and the BJP.
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British business is particularly buoyed by Mr. Modi’s victory and expects his government to quickly take forward economic ties, the groundwork for which has been laid by Mr. Cameron during his visits to India.
Patricia Hewitt, Chair, United Kingdom India Business Council, in her congratulatory message said: “The election of a new Government of India — and the improvements in the business environment that will follow — should prompt those British businesses who have been hesitating about entering the Indian market to put aside their doubts and seize the India opportunity with both hands.”