Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Finnish counterpart Sanna Marin on Wednesday in Copenhagen on the sidelines of the 2^nd India-Nordic Summit. This was the first in-person meeting between the two leaders.

“Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Sanna Marin met in Copenhagen. The developmental partnership between India and Finland is rapidly growing. Both leaders discussed ways to further cement this partnership in trade, investment, technology and other such sectors,” tweeted the office of the Prime Minister of India.

The Ministry of External Affairs press release read “both sides expressed satisfaction at the progress made in the implementation of the outcomes of the bilateral Virtual Summit held on March 16, 2021”

The press release further added “both leaders noted that areas like sustainability, digitalization and cooperation in science and education were important pillars of the bilateral partnership. They discussed opportunities to expand cooperation in the fields of new and emerging technologies like AI, quantum computing, future mobile technologies, clean technologies and smart grids.”

Further, PM Modi invited Finnish companies to partner with Indian companies and take advantage of the enormous opportunities that the Indian market presents, particularly in telecom infrastructure and digital transformations.

In an another meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Iceland counterpart Katrin Jakobsdottir ahead of the 2nd India-Nordic Summit in Copenhagen. Both leaders discussed ways to further strengthen economic cooperation, especially in the sectors of geothermal energy, Blue Economy, Arctic, renewable energy, fisheries, food processing, education including digital universities, and culture.

Geothermal energy, in particular, is an area where Iceland has special expertise, and both sides stressed collaboration between universities of both countries in this sector, read the Ministry of External Affairs press release.

“Prime Minister @narendramodi held talks with PM @katrinjak of Iceland. They discussed boosting ties in areas like trade, energy, fisheries and more,” tweeted the office of the Prime Minister of India.

The Indian Prime Minister also met Magdalena Andersson, Prime Minister of Sweden and reviewed the progress made in the bilateral partnership.

The two leaders also expressed satisfaction at the progress made by the Lead IT initiative. This was an India-Sweden joint global initiative to set up a Leadership Group on Industry Transition (LeadIT) in September 2019 at the UN Climate Action Summit to help guide the world’s heaviest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting industries towards the low-carbon economy. Its membership has now grown to 35 with 16 countries and 19 companies.

On the same day, on the sidelines of the 2^nd India-Nordic Summit PM Modi met the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Store. Prime Minister highlighted that Norway's skills and India's scope provided natural complementarities. Both leaders discussed the potential for deepening engagement in areas like Blue Economy, renewable energy, green hydrogen, solar and wind projects, green shipping, fisheries, water management, rainwater harvesting, space cooperation, long term Infrastructure investment, health and culture.

Image source: ANI