President Patil given royal reception by Queen Elizabeth
London | Tuesday, Oct 27 2009 IST
 

President Pratibha Devisingh Patil was accorded a royal reception at Windsor Castle, the official residence of Queen Elizabeth, on her arrival here on a three-day state visit to the United Kingdom at the Queen's invitation. President Patil and her husband Devisingh Ramsingh Shekhawat, accompanied by Prince of Wales and the Dutchess of Cornwall, were received at the Royal Dais, Datchet Road by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh and then taken in a horse procession for the ceremonial reception. She was accorded a 21-gun salute which was simultaneously sounded at the Tower of London to inform the people about the importance of the event.

Draped in a cream coloured bordered Sari, President Patil inspected the Guard of Honour at the Windsor place where she would be staying for the next two days before she leaves for Cyprus on October 29. It was a moment when the two women, both heads of two big democracies, were meeting to endorse their age-old friendly relationship and strategic partnership. President Patil is the third Indian President visiting UK. Queen Elizabeth and her husband Duke of Edinburgh have visited India thrice.

After inspecting the Guard of Honour, followed by the playing of anthems of both the countries, President Patil and her husband were led to the Sovereign's entrance, Lancaster Suit, by the Queen, where the couple would be staying as the state guest. The Queen then took around the President to show the royal collection of Indian items which, according to sources, includes a khadi shawl embossed with Jai Hind which Mahtma Gandhi had presented to her on her wedding. President Patil is understood to have held a private meeting with Queen Elizabeth later and discussed issues of mutual interests to the two nations. Later, the President is scheduled to meet leader of the Opposition David Cameron and leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg before she goes to attend state banquet thrown in her honour by the Queen at night.

The current party position in UK are Labour Party, 349, Conservative Party, 193, Liberal Democratic Party, 63 and Others, 41. The right of centre Conservative party governed the country for 18 successive years before being heavily defeated by the Labour party in 1997 election. Mr Tony Blair remained Prime Minister for three terms before he was replaced by Mr Gordon Brown as Prime Minister on June 27 in 2007. India and the UK got into a strategic relationship in 2004 and President Patil was the first top dignitary from India visiting UK.

Both the countries have a strong bilateral relationship for economic, commercial and historical reasons. Indian diaspora in UK has a big presence with 1.5 million strong population.

Taking into account India's political and economic emergence, UK has been supporting India's candidature to the United Nations Security Council, seeking urgent need of reform in international institutions like the UN, the IMF, World Bank and G-8. Supporting India's fight against terrorism, the UK had condemned November 2008 terror atttacks in Mumbai with Prime Minister Gordon Brown observing that ''there is a chain of terror that links the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan right through to the streets of the UK and other countries around the world and that chain of terror must be broken...the whole world learned that terrorists based in Pakistan can strike anywhere,'' he had said on November 27, 2008.

-- (UNI) -- 27DF6.xml

 

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