Indian PM Modi said both India and Greece have “excellent coordination” on geopolitical, global and regional issues, including the Indo-Pacific.
India and Greece on Friday upgraded their relations to a strategic partnership and pledged to double two-way trade by 2030 during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the European country, the first by an Indian premier in four decades.
The two sides further decided to speedily finalise a mobility and migration partnership agreement to facilitate skilled migration, Modi said after talks with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Modi, who arrived in Athens on Friday morning after participating in the Brics Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, said both sides will expand cooperation in defence, security, infrastructure, agriculture, education and emerging technologies. India and Greece will have an institutional platform for dialogue between their national security advisers, he said.
Over the past few years, Greece has given a push to revitalising relations with India against the backdrop of the European Union (EU)’s growing engagement with New Delhi. Defence cooperation and military exercises between the two countries have increased, and Greece has traditionally backed India’s position on the Kashmir issue.
Modi said at a joint media interaction with Mitsotakis that both India and Greece support diplomacy and dialogue to resolve the Ukraine crisis, and both sides have “excellent coordination” on geopolitical, global and regional issues, including the Indo-Pacific.
“This is the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Greece after a gap of 40 years. Still, neither the depth of our relations has diminished, nor has there been any decrease in the warmth of our relations,” Modi said, speaking in Hindi.
A joint statement said the two premiers had decided to upgrade bilateral ties to a strategic partnership and agreed to expand bilateral cooperation in the political, security and economic spheres. They also directed that both sides will work to double bilateral trade by 2030. Two-way trade has grown from $507 million in 2016-17 to $1.94 billion in 2022-23.
Both leaders agreed the early finalisation of a mobility and migration partnership agreement will be “mutually beneficial, facilitating…the free movement of workforce between the two countries”, the joint statement said.
Modi added that the two countries will strengthen the strategic partnership by expanding cooperation in defence, security, infrastructure, agriculture, education, new and emerging technologies and skill development.
Mitsotakis described his meeting with Modi as a “new starting point” in relations and said the “most populous [and] largest democracy on the planet is hosted by the first democracy on earth”. Both sides are ready to “walk side by side on the path of modern challenges, especially at a time of international turmoil and war in Ukraine, events that make it even more imperative to uphold the UN Charter”, he added.
India and Greece are united in maintaining maritime security and on the need to adhere to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which is crucial in view of concerns over the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Indo-Pacific, Mitsotakis said.
Mitsotakis pitched Greece as a global investment destination and a new economic, energy and trade bridge between three continents, saying the country had overcome an economic crisis and is developing at a fast pace. The two sides also discussed the importance of direct air connectivity and opportunities in tourism, agri-food, pharmaceuticals and technology, he said.
Modi further said the two sides also discussed cooperation in counterterrorism and cyber security. The discussions also covered digital payments, shipping, culture, education and people-to-people ties. An agreement on agricultural cooperation was signed following the talks.
The two leaders also discussed regional and multilateral issues, including the EU and the Mediterranean, and called for respect of international law, sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to the external affairs ministry. In the area of defence, Modi said both sides agreed to boost defence industries and military-to-military ties.
“Greece expressed its support for the India-EU trade and investment agreement,” Modi said. “In the case of Ukraine, both countries support diplomacy and dialogue,” he said.
Modi expressed condolences for the loss of lives in devastating forest fires in Greece, while Mitsotakis congratulated the Prime Minister on the success of India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission to the moon.
Source: Hindustan Times
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