Former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Highlights Strong India-UK Partnership at NDTV World Summit 2025

Former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has expressed admiration for India's "energy and ambition" and highlighted the promising future of India-UK relations following his participation in the NDTV World Summit 2025 held in New Delhi.

After the summit, Sunak shared on social media: "It was a pleasure to join the NDTV World Summit in New Delhi and reconnect with my good friend @narendramodi. We spoke about the challenges and opportunities shaping the decade ahead, from AI and infrastructure to global growth and economic resilience. India's energy and ambition are unmistakable. As new ideas and industries emerge, there's huge potential for deeper partnerships between countries like the UK and India in business, technology and education."

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During the two-day summit, Sunak engaged in discussions on globalization, the recently finalized India-UK trade agreement, and the increasing significance of international cooperation in today's geopolitically uncertain landscape.

In a session moderated by NDTV's leadership team including CEO and Editor-in-Chief Rahul Kanwal, Senior Managing Editor Vishnu Som, and Managing Editor Padmaja Joshi, Sunak observed that "the world he grew up in no longer exists."

"The old global order, or globalisation, that I grew up with, which came into place after the fall of the Berlin Wall, that is gone, and I don't think it is coming back," Sunak remarked.

He predicted that the next decade would be characterized by "multipolarity and domestic capabilities," with India exemplifying both trends. "There will be more multipolarity in the world - and India is an example of that - and the second thing is that countries everywhere are focused much more on domestic capabilities," he explained.

Sunak identified the Covid-19 pandemic as a pivotal event that transformed how governments approach self-sufficiency.

"Covid was not just a health crisis; it was a geopolitical event," he emphasized. "Every country suddenly realised the fragility of their supply chains."

Addressing global trade and strategic competition, Sunak noted that China's approach to economic engagement has compelled democracies to reassess traditional trade principles.

"It is clear China does not play by the same rules that many of the rest of us were playing by. They don't view trade purely as an economic function," he stated. "Countries have had to think about security, intellectual property theft, and strategic dependency alongside trade. That's why the UK and several others banned Huawei equipment and passed new national security Acts."

Sunak made history as the UK's first prime minister of Indian heritage, serving from October 2022 until July 2024.

Born in Southampton in 1980, his grandparents emigrated from British India to East Africa before settling in the United Kingdom during the 1960s. He is married to Akshata Murthy, daughter of Infosys founder Narayana Murthy and philanthropist-turned-MP Sudha Murty.