@narendramodiIndia could be difficult territory for Labour.
Prime Minister Clement Attlee was criticised for permitting partition to be rushed at horrible price in human life.
International Secretary Robin Cook dinner brought on a storm by providing to mediate between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
And the get together led by Jeremy Corbyn angered much more right here when it handed a movement calling for worldwide intervention within the disputed area.
So it will need to have been with some trepidation that David Lammy arrived in a heat and damp New Delhi on Wednesday morning, a newly-minted international secretary stepping away for the primary time from the extra acquainted turf of Europe and the US.
His journey oozed warning. The bulletins had been uncontroversial; each nations agreed a brand new tech safety partnership.
His phrases in interviews had been secure and measured, eulogising India as a “superpower” and “indispensable companion”.
Mr Lammy’s programme even included a tree planting ceremony on the British residence. Radical this was not.
But the character of the journey was much less necessary than the sheer reality of it.
This was a British international secretary in a brand new authorities, making a degree of visiting India in his third week in workplace.
Mr Lammy held talks together with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
Greater than that, he additionally secured a prized assembly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a head of presidency who not often deigns to hassle himself with mere international ministers.
And all this whereas Mr Modi’s new coalition authorities was busy coping with the fallout from its first price range.
Commerce deal talks
In different phrases, this was a gathering each side needed and had been ready to find time for.
For Labour, the first focus was commerce. If it needs the UK’s economic system to develop, then it can want British companies to do extra enterprise with Indian companions.
India’s economic system is on track to change into the world’s third largest by the tip of the last decade. But it is just the UK’s twelfth largest buying and selling companion.
“There’s a lot we are able to do with this international superpower,” Mr Lammy instructed me.
“Now we have a long-standing historical past, a longstanding relationship, and it’s a win-win for each of our economies.”
He mentioned Britain would work with India to agree a brand new free commerce deal “within the coming months”, negotiations which were stalled for a lot of the yr as each nations held elections.
“Being right here in India is important. Now we have shared curiosity with India. It’s a rising economic system. It’ll be the third largest by the tip of this decade. It’s vastly necessary that we deepen and develop our ties.”
However this journey was not nearly economics. There was broader geopolitics too.
Mr Lammy needs to reset Britain’s relations with the so-called International South. India sees itself as key participant on this unfastened group of creating nations.
And that, Mr Lammy says, includes much less lecturing by Britain and extra listening.
He was eager to speak about shared pursuits on inexperienced expertise and shared threats within the Indo-Pacific, particularly China.
He was much less eager to speak about his hosts subsidising Russia’s struggle machine in Ukraine by shopping for many tanker a great deal of low cost Russian oil and fuel.
“Throughout the democratic neighborhood, there’ll all the time be variations of opinion,” he averred. Which is a method of excusing an ally for aiding an enemy.
‘Underperforming’
The subtext to all this – implicit somewhat than express – was that with a lot political instability amongst Britain’s conventional allies on each side of the Atlantic, the federal government was eager to revive and reset – to make use of Mr Lammy’s favoured phrase – its relations with different allies. And India is the largest prize.
He mentioned Britain’s relationship with India had been “underperforming” however each nations’ pursuits had been aligned on many points. He mentioned the UK should cooperate with India “on this powerful, geopolitically-challenging time”.
For Indian ministers, Mr Lammy’s journey was seen nearly as good second to put money into a British authorities that could be in energy for a while.
It was additionally an opportunity to refocus the UK on the potential for a commerce deal between the 2 nations – which India hopes would drive the UK to calm down its visa regime for Indian college students and enterprise professionals.
They clearly welcomed the actual fact Mr Lammy had made an early go to, and had introduced a plane-load of tech entrepreneurs with him.
Away from the economics, there was additionally some unspoken politics.
India has simply misplaced in Rishi Sunak a British prime minister of Asian origin with shut household hyperlinks to the nation.
Labour was conscious of that, and needed to fill the hole rapidly.
The Jeremy Corbyn period can be nonetheless contemporary is a few Indian minds, and Mr Lammy’s early journey will come as some reassurance.
This journey to the subcontinent was sizzling and humid. Mr Lammy’s swimsuit was too darkish and thick. However the great-grandson of a woman from Calcutta will in all probability assume it was well worth the sweat in diplomatic achieve.
