previous discussion. New diplomatic techniques link to old diplomatic techniques. As we heard in the first session, the British Council, and the BBC were—and still are—hugely important for our relationship, as was the relationship with DFID. We worked closely with DFID during my period. It was not physically in the same place, but we shared our analysis of what and how things should be done. New technologies meant that we had to think about how we reached one billion people beyond the normal ways that we had used for five centuries. A lot of exciting stuff was going on in the High Commission with the Indians looking at new communications techniques and technologies. Rob mentioned the Hawk deal taking many years to sign, but as always in India, there were problems up to the very last minute and beyond. The Hawk deal was finally concluded in our collective garden, on my mobile phone at about 11 o’clock on a Saturday night, in a three-way conversation between the British Aerospace man, the chief Indian negotiator and me—mobile phones have a good role to play in modern diplomacy. There is one other factor that nobody has mentioned yet and about which I was very conscious in my time. Nick was saying that we had moved to a post-colonial, more modern relationship, but if only that were totally true. It is true in the way that Ministers saw India, but even to this day it is not yet sufficiently true in the way that the great British public and serious players beyond the Government see India, and quite a lot of my time was spent trying to get Britain to wake up to this fantastic, modern emerging giant. I did a lot of work back here, not only with Ministers and politicians, but beyond that with business people as well. Finally, this country has a fantastic asset that has not yet been mentioned—its diaspora. Some 2 per cent of our population are British citizens of Indian origin and they are worth approximately 5 per cent of our economy. They provide a link that does not exist for any other country, which every British High Commissioner now has to factor into how they handle that relationship. Fenn: Except Ireland. Arthur: I am sorry. There speaks a former Ambassador to Ireland. 67 Patrick (Chair): Before we move off that topic, perhaps we can explain a little more how changes in technology affected your relationship with London. We are now getting into the age of instant communication, reliable telephone calls and direct regular conversations with Ministers and their opposite numbers in India. How did that affect the way you did business, and your role as a High Commissioner? Fenn: In my day it simply began by multiplying the number of ministerial visits. Thinking still in fairly old terms, ministers suddenly wanted to come to India, and I found myself filtering them because we and the Indians could not cope with too many British ministers at once. In my last year, we had 36 official visitors: 16 ministers, four Royals, 12 major business delegations, including chairmen or CEOs of major British companies, the Baroness Thatcher, the Baroness Boothroyd,68 the Lord Mayor of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury.69 The High Commission was pretty heavily engaged in what I might 67
Sir Nicholas Fenn, UK Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, 1986-91. Baroness Boothroyd, Labour MP for West Bromwich and West Bromwich West, 1973-2000; Speaker of the House of Commons, 1992-2000. 69 George Carey (Lord Carey of Clifton), Archbishop of Canterbury, 1991-2002. 68
44