India-UK Plan First-Ever Ministerial Energy Summit

LONDON, April 20:  India will host the first-ever ministerial-level energy summit with the UK that could become the defining feature of a new type of engagement between the two "natural partners", Power Minister Piyush Goyal has said here. The minister of state for power, coal, new and renewable energy, who is in London to hold talks with his UK counterparts this week, said the summit will help strengthen India-UK ties further. "We discussed with the UK government about the first ministerial summit on energy to be held sometime in June-July in India. The final dates will be worked out jointly and we have invited the energy ministers of UK to come to India and participate in the first-ever summit, which will help us to further strengthen the ties between the UK and India on the energy side," Goyal said on Tuesday. The minister, who is accompanied by a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) delegation to hold meetings with potential investors in London, said the two countries share "several synergies" in their energy agenda. "India and the UK share a rich history that we are natural partners in any and everything we do. In that sense, the energy partnership can also in years to come become the defining feature of a new engagement at an absolutely different scale," he said. The minister also informed the "Green Investors" meet that India will soon tie up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US to develop clean coal technologies. "Coal will remain the mainstay of our energy, but as a responsible nation we are looking at cleaner coal technologies so that we don't do what the West has done to the environment over the last 150 years," he said. From London, Goyal will be travelling to New York for the signing of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and hold meetings on the International Solar Alliance launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Paris last December. -PTI