Manchester, March 8 -- External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday inaugurated a new Indian Consulate in Manchester, Northern England.

After the inauguration, Jaishankar expressed optimism about the future of India- UK relations, anticipating a significant pickup in the relationship in the coming years.

Jaishankar urged the Indian community to consider the consulate a preparation for the growing ties between the two nations.

"I would also urge you to think of this consulate as really preparing for that era. We are clearly anticipating a very big pickup in the relationship in the times to come," he said.

"My experience is that whenever I come up with a statistic, somebody corrects me with a larger number. So I came in here with ...