Narendara Modi and David Cameron
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and British Prime Minister David Cameron address the media during Modi's visit to the UK. Getty

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in London on Thursday (12 November) at the start of a three-day visit to the UK. Modi is the first Indian PM to visit the UK in nearly a decade, making his trip a highly anticipated one.

Shortly after landing, Modi headed to Downing Street to meet his British counterpart, David Cameron. The two engaged in discussions that resulted in £9bn ($13.7bn) of trade deals between the two countries, which was announced during their joint press conference later in the afternoon.

Here are the both speeches from the press conference in full.

Prime Minister David Cameron

Thank you everyone; good afternoon. It's a huge pleasure to welcome Prime Minister Modi to London today on this, his first visit to the United Kingdom since taking office. It is the first of an Indian Prime Minister in almost a decade, and it's a real opportunity to open a new chapter in the relationship between our two countries. I believe we are already natural partners, as the world's oldest democracy and the world's largest democracy, we share so many of the same values. And the ties between our people bind us together, with 1.5 million people of Indian origin living here in the UK, the second largest Indian diaspora anywhere in the world.

Yet I do not believe that we're realising the true potential of this relationship. And that is what Prime Minister Modi and I want to change. We want to forge a more ambitious, modern partnership, harnessing our strengths and working together for the long term to help shape our fortunes at home and abroad in the 21st century. As leaders, we share similar priorities to create jobs and opportunities for all, to protect our people from terrorism, and to tackle global challenges like climate change.

And it makes sense to work together on these issues. So today we've discussed how to build a stronger economic partnership, a stronger defence partnership, and a stronger global partnership. And let me say a word about each.

First, our economic partnership. Britain is the biggest major investor in India, bigger than the USA. British businesses already support nearly 700,000 jobs in India, and India invests more into the UK than it does in the rest of the European Union combined, creating almost 8,000 new jobs here last year alone. And during this visit, British and Indian companies are announcing new collaborations, together worth more than £9 billion.

But I think there's scope to go much further. Today we've discussed Prime Minister Modi's vision for India, to transform its economy, building 100 smart cities, increasing the skills of 500 million young people, providing around the clock electricity for all; building 10,000km of roads. These are immense projects, and we've talked about how Britain can help to transform this vision into a reality. We want to become your number one partner for securing the finance needed for this ambitious plan, making London the world's centre for offshore rupee trading.

We're getting that started with plans already in place today to issue over £1 billion of bonds, right here in London, including the first ever government‑backed rupee‑denominated bond to be issued internationally. We want British companies with their world‑class consulting, project management and engineering skills to help you plan, design and build these new cities. So I am delighted we've agreed a new five‑year partnership to develop three cities: Amravati, Indore and Pune. We want UK and Indian scientists to work together to develop the low‑cost, low‑carbon energy that's vital for the future, and that's why we're establishing a new, £10 million joint research collaboration into new technologies. We want our companies to truly make in India, and that's why we're re‑invigorating our forum of business leaders who we'll see tomorrow.

Second, we've agreed to establish a stronger, broader defence and international security partnership. All countries have a right to self-defence, and we want to assist India, the world's largest defence importer, to modernise her capabilities. We'll establish a new government‑to‑government framework to help make this happen. This will also mean increasing cooperation on new technologies and new capabilities, like cyber, like our aircraft carriers too.

We'll deploy a Royal Navy warship to the Bay of Bengal next February to take part in India's first major international gathering of warships for a number of years. And we'll work together to better protect ourselves from new and emerging threats, such as cyber‑attacks, with the UK helping to establish a new centre to train one million India cyber‑security professionals and offering assistance to set up a new Indian cyber‑crime unit.

Finally, as global powers with a global outlook, we discussed what more we can do to solve the challenges we face. The UK firmly supports permanent membership for India on the United Nations Security Council. International institutions need to reflect the world as it is today, in order to maintain relevance and to support the rules‑based system that benefits us so much.

Today, we agreed on the vital importance of securing an ambitious global deal in Paris later this year that keeps our goal of limiting global warming by 2050 to two degrees, within reach. And we discussed what more we can do to support free trade, in particular by accelerating talks on a free‑trade deal between the EU and India, which could benefit more than 1.7 billion people and be worth over £15 billion each year to the EU and India combined.

So we've had some excellent discussions here today and I look forward to more this evening and of course tomorrow as well. We both have big ambitions for the relationship between our countries. We want a modern, essential partnership founded on old ties, but defined and fuelled by the modern, diverse, dynamic countries that we are both today.

Thank you. Prime Minister Modi.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Mr Prime Minister Cameron, members of the media. Prime Minister Cameron has shown great hope and positivity with regard to the relationship with India. I'd like to thank you for that. You have done a great deal to strengthen this partnership between India and UK. I would like to thank you for your warm welcome and your gracious hospitality, and all the time that you have set aside for me during my visit here. So I'd really like to thank you for your past efforts in strengthening the partnership between our two countries.

I am delighted to visit the United Kingdom. This is a relationship of immense importance to us. We are – the familiarity of history, the extraordinary people‑to‑people ties and our shared values give it a special character. And this has made it possible to give a special character to our relations. We also have vibrant and growing partnerships across all areas, trade and investment, defence and security, science and education, clean energy and health, technology and innovation, art and culture.

At the international level, we have a broad range of shared interests that are vital to both our countries. Today we have agreed to intensify our political dialogue and hold regular bilateral summits. We have decided to turn our shared values into a partnership to support development in other regions of the world, and alongside we are committed to deepen cooperation across all areas.

Today, we have signed a civil nuclear agreement. This is a symbol of our mutual trust. And we have also resolved to combat climate change. The global centre for clean energy partnerships in India is one of the areas where we have agreed to cooperate, and this will strengthen safety and security in the global nuclear industry.

We attach great value to defence and security cooperation with the UK, including joint military exercises, and trade – defence trade and collaboration. And this cooperation will continue to grow. I am gratified to note that in February 2016, UK will participate in the international fleet review in India. UK will also be strong partners in India's defence modernisation plans, including our make an India mission in the defence sector. And I'm convinced that UK will play an important role in this mission of ours.

Economic partnership is a key pillar of our partnership. I am convinced that this relationship will grow rapidly in the years ahead, given the size and scale of opportunities in a rapidly expanding India and Britain's own formidable economic strengths.

The UK is the third-leading investor in India, and India invests much more in UK than in other European Union countries. In – for greater investment in India, we are launching a new fast-track mechanism. We also welcome the revival of the India-UK CEO Forum. We are – we will also increasingly raise funds in London's financial market. I am pleased that we will issue a railways rupee bond in London stock market. This is – for this is where the journey of Indian Railways had begun.

In the next two days, I am looking forward to our engagement with the business sector, and we are – we hope to hear significant announcements from this sector. I am pleased with the progress in our cooperation in clean energy and climate change involving our governments and the private sector. This is an area of immense importance, and it offers enormous opportunities.

Our – with regard to India's comprehensive and ambitious national plan on climate change, we have a lot of expectations from our bilateral cooperation. We look forward to a concrete outcome in Paris within the framework of the UN Convention on Climate Change, that charts decisive goals for a sustainable and low-carbon future for the world.

We have also achieved many other tangible outcomes in other areas that are all part of India's national priorities. These include smart cities, healthcare, clean river initiatives, skills and education. Indeed, we agreed that technology, research and innovation will be strong foundations of our partnership across all areas. Both our nations will be able to create more opportunities for our people and increase their prosperity. And at the same time, we will advance our many shared interests and address our challenges. These include peace and stability in Asia, especially in South Asia and West Asia; maritime security; cyber security; and of course, terrorism and extremism.

Prime Minister Cameron, I will continue our discussions on these and other issues in Chequers today and tomorrow. But before I conclude, I wish to thank Prime Minister Cameron and the UK for the strong British support for India's permanent membership of the reformed UN Security Council and membership in the international export control regimes. I look forward to the honour of speaking in Parliament and addressing the India-UK business summit. And I will have, therefore, the opportunity to speak at length about the rich promise of this relationship.

Today, we have outlined a bold and ambitious vision for our strategic partnership, and the decisions we have taken today reflect our firm commitment to pursue it and the confidence to achieve it. Indeed, the outcomes today have shown that we have already taken our relationship to a new level. Thank you.

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