Prime Minister Modi will leave today on a tour of European countries, talk on terrorism is main agenda.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave on Monday for a trip to four European countries. In this visit of the Prime Minister, there will be a discussion on bilateral cooperation in areas of economic, defense, science and technology and nuclear. At the same time, the EU-India Free Trade Agreement, the fight against terrorism, is involved in the main agenda of the dialogue. PM Modi will be on a trip to Germany, Spain, Russia and France.
No Prime Minister of the country has visited Spain for the last 30 years. In such a scenario, Narendra Modi will be the first Indian Prime Minister to perform during Spain in 30 years. To participate in the annual bilateral summit, the Prime Minister will also move to Russia and after this, he will go to France, where he will meet with the newly elected President, Emmanuel Macro for the first time .
The first stop for Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Europe will be Berlin, where he will jointly chair the biennial inter-governmental consultation (IGC) on Tuesday with Chancellor Angela Merkel. India and Germany have more than 25 work groups in important areas such as climate change, energy, infrastructure and terrorism.
According to Germany’s ambassador to India, Martin said that this same time as in the previous IGC in 2015, there will be many agreements between the two countries. According to Martin, “The Indo-German Chamber of Commerce outside Germany is Germany’s largest bilateral industry division. This industry body comprises more than 7,000 companies from India and Germany.
Joint Secretary (Western Europe) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Randhir Jaiswal just before the Prime Minister’s visit to Europe, said that Germany is India’s largest trading partner in the European Union. After meeting Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeyer, PM Modi will leave for Spain on May 30. In 1988, Rajiv Gandhi was the last Prime Minister of India to visit Spain.
Modi will attend a bilateral summit with the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on May 31 . Prime Minister Modi will also meet King Felipe-6 of Spain and also meet with a select group of officials of companies wishing to invest in India and extend their business. There are about 200 companies in Spain doing business in India.
Explaining the economic cooperation in bilateral relations with Spain, Jaiswal said, “Spain is quite prestigious in the field of renewable energy, fast speed train, infrastructure, tunnel construction, technology solutions, civil aviation air route management and wastewater management”. Cooperation in Spain will be an important issue in the field of fighting against terrorism.
Prime Minister Modi will leave for Russia from Spain on 31st May, where he will participate in the 18th annual bilateral summit with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on June 1 in St. Petersburg. The next day the Prime Minister will attend the Business Conference organized in St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
Joint Secretary (Eurasia) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Eurasia) G.V. Srinivas said that the share of the prime minister in SPIEF indicates that trade and investment will be the main agenda on the Russian tour. Describing the cooperation between India and Russia as “extremely strong” in the field of defense, nuclear and space , Srinivas said that trade has declined due to several reasons between the two countries, which has come down from $ 10 billion to $ 7 billion .
Prime Minister Modi will leave Russia on the evening of June 2 and the French President will meet Macrocon next day. Explaining France as India’s strategic partner, Jaiswal said that there is strong cooperation between the two countries on space, civil nuclear, defense and economic sectors.
According to Jaiswal, during the visit of France, Germany and Spain, the Free Trade Agreement between India and the European Union will be an important issue. India adopted a new BIT in December, 2015, replacing the old Bilateral Investment Protection Treaties (BIT), which includes many countries of Europe.
