British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has cancelled his trip to India owing to the second wave of COVID-19 that has hit the Country.

British PM Boris Johnson was scheduled to visit India next week. However, his trip was cancelled on Monday in view of the deteriorating COVID-19 situation in the Country.

The development has been informed by the India’s External Affairs Ministry and the British Government in a joint statement on Monday.

“In light of the current coronavirus situation, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not be able to travel to India next week,” the joint statement read.

This is for the second occasion that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s trip to India has been cancelled.

Also read: India registers over 2.73 lakh new Covid19 cases, 1,619 more deaths in last 24 hours

Earlier in January, Boris Johnson’s visit to India was cancelled owing to fast and sudden spread of COVID-19 infections in the United Kingdom.

The India-UK joint statement further informed that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and British PM Boris Johnson will hold talks later this month and discuss launching of plans to strengthen partnership of both the countries.

“The two sides will be holding a virtual meeting in the coming days to launch plans for a transformed India-UK relationship,” External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

“Instead, Prime Ministers Modi and Johnson will speak later this month to agree and launch their ambitious plans for the future partnership between the UK and India. They will remain in regular contact beyond this, and look forward to meeting in person later this year,” the India-UK joint statement, released by 10 Downing Street read.

Also read: Covid19 lockdown in Delhi; complete curfew from tonight  

Notably, India registered 2,73,810 new COVID-19 positive cases in the last 24 hours.

Moreover, India registered 1,619 more COVID-19 related deaths in the last 24 hours.

“Ten states including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Rajasthan reported 78.58% of the new cases,” Union Health Ministry said in a statement.