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Updated: Jul 12, 2017 17:55 IST

Apart from focussing on improving trade ties with India, Prime Minister Theresa May has said she raised the issue of modern slavery in India with Prime Minister Narendra Modi since the scourge is a matter of concern.

Making a statement in the House of Commons on the recent G20 Summit, May named India among key countries with which Britain is keen to improve trade relations as it leaves the European Union. Talks through a working group had already begun, she said.

May said she was responsible for putting modern slavery on the agenda of the G20 Summit. She was asked by Graham Jones (Labour Party) if she had raised the issue of child prostitution with Modi.

May said: “I have raised this issue—the question of modern slavery—previously with Prime Minister Modi, as the United Kingdom wants people around the world to address it. We are very clear that we want to see this issue being dealt with.

“That is one of the reasons why we have put into legislation the requirement for companies here in the UK, which will be manufacturing and will be sourcing products from around the world, to look at their supply chains and report on what they find in them and whether or not modern slavery is taking place within them.”

May said she had meetings with Modi and other leaders at the G20 Summit, and they had “made clear their strong desire to forge ambitious new bilateral trading relationships with the UK after Brexit. This included America, Japan, China and India.”

During the meeting with May, Modi raised the issue of returning Indian economic offenders who had taken refuge in the United Kingdom, including controversial businessman Vijay Mallya, whose extradition case is currently being heard in court.