Diplomacy

The president, who reached Slovenian capital Ljubljana earlier in the day, is on the concluding leg of his nine-day three-nation visit to Iceland, Switzerland, and Slovenia. During the bilateral meeting between Kovind and Pahor, the two sides exchanged seven MoUs and Programmes of Cooperation in the fields of investment, sports, culture, river rejuvenation (Clean Ganga Mission), science and technology and standards.

The meeting at Fort William here was aimed at strengthening defence cooperation between the two nations to put up a united fight against terrorism, the official said.

“India ranks as a major global player in areas such as pharmaceuticals, healthcare services, information technology, solar energy, automobiles, space and biotechnology. Our two economies are highly complementary and there is vast scope to combine our relative advantages in capital, technology, science and skills for mutual benefit,” Rashtrapati Bhavan said in a tweet on Saturday.

The two countries have steadily expanded cooperation in maritime domain awareness. The information exchange agreement, with a border mandate, is important for better maritime domain awareness, the source added.

Modi, during the visit, emphasised India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy and assured India’s full support to Maldives in realising its aspirations for broad-based socio-economic development and strengthening of democratic and independent institutions.

Amid speculation if Trump would join PM Modi at the Houston event, White House issued a statement to confirm that he would attend the rally. This is the third successive meeting between Trump and PM Modi within the span of a few weeks after the G20 and G7 summits.

During its stay at Visakhapatnam, a series of activities are scheduled between the two navies which include professional interactions, cross visits, sporting events and social interactions between the Indian Navy and Bangladesh Navy personnel.

India has been a major victim of terrorism, especially “jihadism”, which is plaguing countries in South Asia apart from the Middle East, said Paulo Casaca, Executive Director of the South Asia Democratic Forum who highlighted the various steps taken by India in recent times to counter Pakistan’s designs.

The Prime Minister tweeted that the mementoes would be on display at the National Gallery of Modern Art in the capital and the proceeds of the auction will be donated to the Namami Gange Mission to clean river Ganga.

The defence ministries of the two countries are working hard to prepare for the 12th Vietnam-India defence policy dialogue at the deputy ministerial level in Vietnam in December, Vinh said.