British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has scrapped his planned visit to India set for next week as the country battles a rapidly spreading second Covid wave. Johnson called the cancellation “frustrating” but said it was the “only sensible” step to take in the light of India’s soaring number of coronavirus cases. India reported a record 273,000 new infections on Monday.

Johnson said he would speak to Prime Minister Narendra Modi “online” and they would meet in person later this year. The British prime minister is aiming to negotiate an interim free-trade deal with India in under a year -- an ambition that opposition critics say needs a reality check. They point to the EU-India free-trade talks which began back in 2007, were suspended by the Europeans in 2013, but now are supposed to resume next month.

Tory ministers have been trumpeting the possibility of a post-Brexit trade deal with India as a jewel in Johnson’s crown and evidence of the UK’s ability to strike its own stand-alone post-Brexit trading agreements. So far, most of the UK’s trade deals have been rollovers from its earlier EU trading arrangements.

To support improved bilateral relations, the two countries had been expected to roll out during Johnson’s visit a “Roadmap 2030” for future cooperation that would span a range of areas from trade and investment, defence and security to technological collaboration and healthcare.

Johnson had been expected to declare he wanted to seek to more than double India-UK trade to 50 billion pounds, another goal at which British critics scoff. Right now, India is Britain's 15th biggest trading partner. At the moment, the UK does more business with tiny Belgium than with India and the UK’s share of Indian imported goods stands at 1.3 per cent, down from 6 per cent in 2000.

To achieve any kind of wide trading agreement, the UK would have to open its markets much more widely to India’s products and give the country greater access to the UK labour market, particularly in the IT sector. The UK would also have to grant many more university student visas.

For the UK, the trading prize would be the opening up of Indian markets to Scotch whisky. India represents the third biggest market globally for Scotch whisky and the UK says if India removed its 150 per cent tariff import on imported Scotch whisky, the market could be even larger. However, India has its own home-grown whisky industry which is heavily opposed to any easing of tariffs.

Johnson’s also visit had been intended to underscore the UK’s “significant reorientation” to the Indo-Pacific following the country’s exit from the European Union.

Because of the Covid situation in India, Johnson’s trip, due to take place April 26, had already been pared down to one day. It’s the second time Johnson’s visit to India has been postponed. The last time was in January when Johnson was due to be the chief guest at the Republic Day Parade but had to call off his plans due to the Covid situation in the UK.

With Johnson’s visit now off the cards, there was swift action on one front. India, despite being the worst-hit country globally by Covid and home to a new variant known as the B1617 which some scientists fear is at least as dangerous as the South African and Brazilian strains, had been conspicuously absent from the UK’s “Red List,” That list bans travel from nations badly affected by the coronavirus.

In fact, the normally Conservative government-supporting Spectator magazine headlined the question, “Why has India avoided the red list?” and observed the omission has caused some surprise.” Opposition critics said India had been kept off the list was because Johnson didn’t want to offend the Indian government ahead of his visit.

But within hours of the cancellation of Johnson’s visit, UK Health Minister Matt Hancock announced India would be added to the red-list. “This means anyone who is not a UK or Irish resident or a British citizen cannot enter the UK if they've been in India in the previous 10 days," Hancock told parliament. UK and Irish residents and British citizens who've been in India in the past 10 days before their arrival will need to complete hotel quarantine for 10 days from the time of arrival,” Hancock added.