On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Tony Abbott, the former Australian Prime Minister, who is visiting India. Modi described Abbott as "always a friend of India" and recalled how Abbott had enjoyed millets during a visit to Dilli Haat in the national capital.

PM Modi shared a picture with Abbott on X and penned, "Delighted to meet my good friend and former Australian PM, Mr Tony Abbott. He has always been a friend of India's. We have all seen him enjoy millets during his current visit."

Tony Abbott was Australia's Prime Minister from September 18, 2013, to September 15, 2015, and served in the country's House of Representatives from 1994 to 2019.

At the time of his visit to the Millets Experience Centre at Dilli Haat in New Delhi on Friday, Abbott expressed his appreciation for the variety of millet-based food items he sampled, saying he was impressed by them.

He expressed, "I did not expect millets to be so versatile. But on my experience, I will thoroughly recommend Millets."

Former Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar, along with National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) Managing Director Rajbir Singh, inaugurated the Millets Experience Centre (MEC) in April 2023. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the centre was established to promote awareness about millets and encourage their consumption among the public.

"The ministry-led initiative of establishing a consumer-oriented 'Millets Experience Centre' would not only promote the dietary benefits of the ancient grain but also popularise millets or Shree Anna as a nutritional powerhouse fit for cooking a variety of dishes like Millets dosa, Millets pasta, etc," according to a statement from the ministry.