Close X
Friday, November 1, 2024
ADVT 
International

UK cuts diplomatic jobs in countries like India, Pak, China: Report

Darpan News Desk IANS, 13 Mar, 2023 10:44 AM
  • UK cuts diplomatic jobs in countries like India, Pak, China: Report

London, March 13 (IANS) British-based diplomatic posts for key Indo-Pacific countries like India, Pakistan and China have been cut by up to 50 per cent in recent years, according to new government figures.

Despite being identified as key places to deepen ties with over the coming decade, staff members of embassies and consulates in Pakistan, China and India have all been diminishing over the last seven years, the Guardian reported.

According to the report, the number of British-based Foreign Office staff was between 110 and 119 in the Pakistan embassy and consulate.

This fell to 50-59, a cut equivalent to about 50 per cent.

Over the same timeframe, the number of British-based Foreign Office staff was cut from 70-79 to 40-49 in the past seven years in India.

The figures shared by the Guardian came from the Foreign Office minister David Rutley, in response to written parliamentary questions by the Labour frontbencher Catherine West.

The figures also showed a reduction in the number of trips by ministers to these countries.

The Foreign Office and international development department conducted 37 ministerial trips to the Indo-Pacific region in 2018, with some countries being visited more than once a year.

However, by 2022, the number of ministerial trips conducted was less than a third of that, with just 12 recorded, the Guardian reported.

A Foreign Office spokesperson told the Guardian that these numbers do not give an "accurate picture" of Britain's presence in the Indo-Pacific region.

The reduction in headcount of UK-based staff in China and India is partly due to Covid and how the UK spends its overseas development budget, the Guardian was told.

Citing evidence of the UK's growing influence in the region, the spokesperson told the Guardian that there was a boost of 16.4 per cent in trade with the Indo-Pacific year-on-year from autumn 2021 to 2022.

MORE International ARTICLES

2 killed, 3 injured in shootings at 4 US California 7-Eleven stores

2 killed, 3 injured in shootings at 4 US California 7-Eleven stores
La Habra is a city in the northwestern corner of Orange County. The La Habra Police Department said in a press release that their officers responded at about 4:55 a.m. to a robbery at a 7-Eleven store, Xinhua news agency reported.

2 killed, 3 injured in shootings at 4 US California 7-Eleven stores

Rishi Sunak cementing position as Tory leadership front-runner

Rishi Sunak cementing position as Tory leadership front-runner
The former Chancellor again batted away calls for tax cuts before inflation is under control, saying "we need to have a grown up conversation". At the event in Westminster, he also heaped praise on Boris Johnson, describing him as "one of the most remarkable people I have ever met" who has a "good heart" - but it was "not working" any more.

Rishi Sunak cementing position as Tory leadership front-runner

Rishi Sunak now bookmakers' favourite to become UK PM

Rishi Sunak now bookmakers' favourite to become UK PM
The vacancy was created when the incumbent Boris Johnson lost the confidence of his party MPs after a series of scandals, and resigned on Thursday. 11 candidate have since thrown their hats into the ring. Among them, Sunak, who chancellor of the exchequer before he resigned last Tuesday, and Suella Fernandes Braverman, who is of Goan descent and is still serving as caretaker attorney general.

Rishi Sunak now bookmakers' favourite to become UK PM

Indian-origin Ramesh Balwani found guilty of defrauding investors, patients in US

Indian-origin Ramesh Balwani found guilty of defrauding investors, patients in US
Balwani faced 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. After a three-month trial, a jury has found him guilty of all 12 counts. He now faces up to 20 years in prison for each count, The Verge reported late on Thursday.

Indian-origin Ramesh Balwani found guilty of defrauding investors, patients in US

Rishi Sunak bids to be UK Prime Minister

Rishi Sunak bids to be UK Prime Minister
But the public liking for him was dented when this year he introduced taxes to reduce the government's heavy borrowings. This was followed by controversy over his wife avoiding paying taxes in Britain and instead doing so at a lower rate in India from her dividends from shares in Infosys, the Bangalore-based software giant founded by her father N.R. Narayana Murthy.

Rishi Sunak bids to be UK Prime Minister

Boris Johnson quits as Conservative Party leader, to stay till new PM chosen

Boris Johnson quits as Conservative Party leader, to stay till new PM chosen
Addressing the media outside 10, Downing Street, the 58-year-old embattled British leader, who has faced controversies galore in his 1,079 days in power, said: "It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of the party and therefore a new Prime Minister."

Boris Johnson quits as Conservative Party leader, to stay till new PM chosen