British foreign secretary James Cleverly on Wednesday assured India that changes would be made in the security around the Indian high commission in London, stepping in to contain the damage done to the bilateral relationship by Sunday’s vandalism at India House. On Wednesday, New Delhi removed concrete security barriers from the British high commission and high commissioner’s residence in Delhi, apparently as a retaliatory measure for the vandalism.

In a detailed statement issued on Wednesday, Cleverly said: “Acts of violence towards staff at the Indian High Commission in London are unacceptable and I have made our position clear to the High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami.

The police investigation is ongoing and we are in close contact with the Indian High Commission in London and the Indian Government in New Delhi. We are working with the Metropolitan Police to review security at the Indian High Commission, and will make the changes needed to ensure the safety of its staff as we did for today’s demonstration.”

Dwelling on the bilateral relationship and “deep personal connections” between India and the UK, Cleverly said: “We will always take the security of the High Commission, and all foreign missions in the UK, extremely seriously, and prevent and robustly respond to incidents such as this.” Evidently eager to ensure that the bilateral relationship is not derailed by this week’s turn of events, Cleverly said: “Our joint 2030 Roadmap guides our relationship and shows what we can achieve when we work together, creating new markets and jobs for the two countries and helping to tackle shared challenges. We want to build deeper ties between the UK and India for the future.”

Cleverly’s statement was followed up with a meeting between the minister of state for foreign commonwealth and development affairs, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, and Doraiswami on Thursday.

This is the first time London has officially spoken after Sunday’s vandalism at the Indian high commission in London by Khalistani activists who also pulled down the Tricolour. Prior to this, only the British high commissioner in Delhi, Alex Ellis, had publicly commented on the vandalism. On Sunday, Ellis had tweeted: “I condemn the disgraceful acts today against the people and premises of the @ HCI_London — totally unacceptable.” India had on Tuesday night removed the concrete security barriers around the British high commission on Shantipath and Ellis’s residence on Rajaji Marg in apparent retaliation to the absence of security around India House on Sunday.