Documents released by the UK government in early February 2025 reveal that, in 2021, Gautam Adani and then UK prime minister Boris Johnson discussed collaborating on weapons production and renewable energy. The London Science Museum hosted the talks after a controversial sponsorship deal between Adani and the museum was announced. The papers reveal that the UK government believed that Adani’s ‘natural resources businesses’ (ie coal) comprised a ‘challenge’ in managing the public relations pertaining to these collaborations.
Media release by 'Culture Unstained' of 14 February 2025:
Newly released Cabinet Office documents shed light on how the billionaire chair of the Adani Group lobbied the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and leveraged the Group's sponsorship of a London museum. The discussions occurred during the period in which the Adani Group is alleged to have carried out a $265m bribery scheme in India.
The Cabinet Office made the 'unprecedented' move of disclosing internal briefing documents just days before a First Tier Information Tribunal was due to consider whether documents should have been made public following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted over two years ago by Culture Unstained, a British campaign organisation.
The disclosed documents relate to then Prime Minister Boris Johnson's meetings with Gautam Adani, both at the Science Museum on the day its sponsorship of a new energy gallery was announced, and at Adani’s HQ in India the following year, where they discussed topics that included partnering on defence and developing closer ties on renewable energy.
The newly disclosed documents reveal how:
- After signing a £4 million multi-year agreement to sponsor the Science Museum’s new climate and energy gallery, Gautam Adani was accompanied by the museum’s Director and Chair to a meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson as part of the government’s ‘Global Investment Summit’, hosted at the museum that day (19 October 2021);
- A briefing for the meeting notes that Adani’s ‘natural resources business remains a challenge’, in what appears to be a reference to Adani’s position as the world’s largest private producer of coal. During the meeting, they discussed strategically important topics, including plans to list an Adani entity on the London Stock Exchange, building a European Adani HQ in the UK, and seeking to secure a platform at the COP26 Climate Summit just a few weeks later.
- The following year, Boris Johnson attended a meeting at Adani’s HQ, also attended by ‘Adani’s family members and senior associates and the Chief Minister of Gujarat’, with then Prime Minister Boris Johnson noting how, 'given the breadth of the renewables sector in the UK, he thought that there were numerous opportunities for collaboration’.
- During the meeting, Johnson and Adani also spoke about a ‘desire for partnership’ on arms and defence projects, such as the Future Combat Air System and naval propulsion, with Gautam Adani saying his aim was to produce a ‘BAE of India’ and speaking of aspirations to meet with the Defence Secretary. (BAE is a multinational aerospace and defence-systems company).
The meeting at the Science Museum took place during the period in which it is alleged that Gautam Adani was personally involved in paying bribes to Indian officials in order to secure lucrative renewable energy contracts.
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The disclosures came as energy secretary Ed Miliband visited India to review progress made by both nations in renewable energy, and as opposition to Adani Green Energy’s sponsorship of the Science Museum grows after the firm became the focus of an indictment by US prosecutors alleging that its executives had mounted bribery and fraud on a colossal scale.
Previous FOI disclosures made to Culture Unstained have revealed that in pursuing the Adani deal, Science Museum Director Ian Blatchford had pitched the sponsorship to Gautam Adani as a ‘global profiling opportunity’, a clear indication that such arrangements are transactional in nature and intended to enhance the sponsor’s reputation and benefit it financially.
Despite the Cabinet Office making the disclosure, Culture Unstained went ahead with its appeal to the Information Tribunal in order to contest a series of redactions made to the documents by the Cabinet Office. During the proceedings, the Cabinet Office confirmed that in addition to the five documents it had disclosed, it had also identified over 1500 Adani-related records on a civil-service email archive which could fall within the scope of Culture Unstained’s original FOI request but which had not been reviewed by the Cabinet Office.
Chris Garrard, Co-director of Culture Unstained, said:
‘It’s now clear that while Gautam Adani was allegedly paying bribes to secure lucrative renewable-energy contracts in India, he was at the same time lobbying then Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a bid to partner with the UK on renewable-energy projects [in the UK].
‘With huge controversy surrounding Adani – from the destructive impacts of its vast coal-mining and weapons businesses to allegations of corruption – it’s abundantly clear that the London Science Museum should not be opening doors for Adani to meet senior politicians nor cleaning up its reputation.’
As part of the Appeal process, Culture Unstained compiled and submitted a 50-page Witness Statement to the Information Tribunal outlining the extent of the Adani Group’s involvement in coal production, coal power and its climate impacts, the opposition of Indigenous communities to those projects, as well a range of longstanding and well-documented concerns around corruption and fraud relating to the Adani Group.
The disclosed documents also highlight Gautam Adani’s ambitions to expand the conglomerate’s involvement in weapons and defence in order to become the ‘BAE [Systems] of India’. The Adani Group already partners with the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems on the production of drones, including the Hermes 900 drone which has been used in the conflict in Palestine.
A representative from Parents for Palestine, a grassroots collective of parents and caretakers calling for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, said:
‘Adani Green Energy is not a separate entity when it comes to ethical accountability. The Adani Group’s extensive arms dealings and investments in military infrastructure directly implicate all its subsidiaries.
‘By presenting Adani in a positive and ‘green’ light to the UK Prime Minister, who then went on to discuss with Adani its ambition in weapons to become the “BAE of India”, the Science Museum cannot claim neutrality—it is complicit in the actions of its sponsor’s parent company.’
Science Museum Director Ian Blatchford forged ahead with the partnership with Adani over the course of 2020-21, despite the museum’s own Due Diligence report on the company identifying a catalogue of concerns about criminal investigations, corruption litigation, environmental issues, cronyism and human-rights abuses surrounding Adani, and in the face of significant opposition including the resignation of two of the Museum trustees, Dr Hannah Fry and Dr Jo Foster.
Subsequently, climate scientist Professor Chris Rapley and former Director of the Science Museum, resigned from its Advisory Group. Separately, young people, scientists, Indigenous leaders and educators have called on the museum to drop Adani.
Lotika Singha, from International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India, said:
‘It is deeply troubling to see how the Science Museum, a significant publicly-funded educational institution, continues to greenwash Adani, a company steeped in human-rights abuses and environmental destruction.
‘Adani is infamous among the many marginalised communities in India, who have been or are at risk of being displaced, dispossessed and exploited by the Group’s various projects – from coalmining to ‘renewable’ energy, from airports and seaports to weapons and surveillance.’
Notes
For interviews or more information, please email [email protected]
Culture Unstained was represented in the Tribunal by Oliver Jackson of 11KBW, instructed by Paul Taylor of Richard Buxton Solicitors, all working pro bono.
The full witness statements can be read here:
First Witness Statement of Dr Chris Garrard', covering:
- the FOI request in the Appeal
- the UK's relations with India
- Gautam Adani and the Adani Group
- the Adani Group's Fossil Fuel Activities
- alleged corruption and the Hindenburg Group Report
- corporate sponsorship of museums
- opposition to 'Artwashing'
- controversy pertaining to the Science Museum Group's Funding.
'Second Witness Statement of Dr Chris Garrard', covering evidence from the Indictment by US prosecutors which highlight how at the time of the meetings, Adani allegedly engaged in a large-scale bribery scheme to secure lucrative renewable energy contracts in India.
Released documents
Three documents relate to Boris Johnson’s meeting with Gautam Adani at the Science Museum in London, during the UK’s Global Investment Summit in October 2021 on the same day Adani’s sponsorship of a new ‘Energy Revolution’ gallery was announced:
- the Prime Minister’s briefing pack for the Global Investment Summit, 18–19 October 2021;
- a ‘Clutch card’ reminding him of key points for his meeting with Gautam Adani;
- A 28 October 2021 letter to the Department for International Trade recording the Prime Minister’s interactions.
Two further documents relate to Boris Johnson’s April 2022 visit to India, made at the invitation of Prime Minister Modi, during which Johnson visited the Adani headquarters in Gujarat:
- Briefing pack of the Prime Minister’s visit to India in April 2022;
- 2022 DIT Letter - Letter from the Private Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Department for International Trade dated 26 April 2022.
US Indictment
In November 2024, Gautam Adani was indicted by a US Court, with an arrest warrant issued for Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani, Executive Director of Adani Green Energy. According to filings by US prosecutors, at the time of Boris Johnson’s meetings with Adani, Gautam Adani and other executives were in the midst of enacting an alleged $265-million bribery scheme in a bid to secure lucrative renewable-energy contracts, and had misled investors as to Adani’s adherence to anti-bribery practices. Gautam Adani is alleged to have personally met with an Indian official to advance the bribery scheme between September and November 2021, around the time of the Global Investment Summit, and from April 2022 was, with Sagar Adani, alleged to have been involved in multiple meetings in India to discuss the payment of bribes to state government officials in India.
