Modi strengthens cooperation with Nordic countries

COPENHAGEN: The India-Nordic Summit will go a long way in boosting India's ties with the region, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday after he participated in India-Nordic Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The second India-Nordic summit saw the participation of the Prime Ministers of Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. This meeting came shortly after PM Modi held bilateral meetings with the Nordic leaders.

"The India-Nordic Summit will go a long way in boosting India's ties with the region. Together, there is much that our nations can achieve and contribute to global prosperity and sustainable development," PM Modi tweeted.

Addressing a press special briefing, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said three clusters that ran common to the Nordic Summit.

"One, need to combine the skill capability of Nordic countries with the scale of India. Two, clean and green growth solutions and three, to forge new innovation partnerships," he said.

Kwatra said that discussions during the India-Nordic summit were held in three clusters. "One, relating to multilateral cooperation in the context of COVID aftermath. Two, the climate and sustainable development and blue economy. Three, the innovation segment," he said.

Listing out the key points which came up during the summit, the Foreign Secretary said Prime Minister Modi appreciated the Nordic countries as very reliable partners in the last 75 years of India's journey of growth and economic development.

"It was noted that Nordic countries in India have shared values of freedom, democracy and the rules-based order. And also share perspectives on various global matters," he said.

"The areas of board cooperative partnership essentially focused on: One, the urban renewal. Two, river cleaning. Three is the entire domain of renewable energy. Four is skill development."

PM Modi also said that there is a need for temporary TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver for vaccine production globally with the view to ensuring vaccine availability for the needy countries, Kwatra said.

The Foreign Secretary said PM also reiterated the five commitments that India made during the COP26 summit.

This summit was a follow up to the first summit that took place in Stockholm, Sweden in 2018. The Stockholm Summit was the 1st time India engaged with the Nordic countries as a group on a single platform.