Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman terms "baseless" report of her UK snub

Indian officials had called for the meeting a month ago and two British ministers which included Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson convinced Williamson for conducting a meeting with Sitharaman.

The report in The  Sunday Times said that Williamson has opted against meeting Sitharaman as a part of her three-day window of bilateral talks on security cooperation and defence procurement between June 20 and 22.

Terming the report as, 'baseless', Sitharaman took to Twitter to express her disappointment.

"Disappointed, Sunday Times (UK). Baseless story, to say the least. The UK & India have a robust relationship."

" A mutually convenient date is being worked out for meeting & I look forward to it," she tweeted.

Sitharaman received a reply from Williamson himself where he said, "And I very much look forward to it too."

Quoting a government official, the newspaper reported, "People are spitting blood about this."

"India has one of the fastest-growing defence budgets in the world, spending something like USD 50 billion a year. It feels like another ill-judged move by Williamson," the report, quoting the source further added.

It also accused Williamson of angering one of the world's growing economies by declining to meet his Indian counterpart.

Manoj Ladwa, the founder of UK-India Week which is organised in London and Buckinghamshire between June 18 and 22, said, "It would of course have been really good if Williamson could have spared some time, but let's also not kid ourselves that the Indians will have lost too much sleep over it".

A host of senior political leaders and business personalities would attend the event which would last for two days and will also have UK-India awards.