President’s Three Nations Visit | 18 Sep 2019

The President of India recently concluded his visit to the three nations namely, Iceland, Switzerland, and Slovenia.

Historical Background

India and Iceland’s friendship is based on the shared values and mutuality of interests.
- A string of high-level visits between the two nations since 2000, imparted a new dynamism to the bilateral relations.
Iceland was the first Nordic country that publicly extended support to India's candidature for permanent membership at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Iceland was one of the countries that co-sponsored the resolution at the UN to declare June 21 as the International Day of Yoga.

India and Iceland signed and exchanged three agreements in the fields of,
- Fisheries collaboration,
- Cultural cooperation, and
- Visa waiver for the holders of diplomatic and official passport.
Culturally, India’s long-pending demand for setting up a Hindi Chair at the University of Iceland was fulfilled.
- The Hindi language will now be taught at the University of Iceland.
On the economic front, with India’s aim to become a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25, India’s transformative growth and Iceland’s technological know-how can add immense value.
- In the purview of Climate Change, India wants to combine its economic progress with clean technology.
  - In this regard, Iceland’s pioneering efforts in green technologies, be it carbon capture, energy-efficient buildings or waste-to-wealth projects can leverage significant benefits to India.
The future areas of cooperation between India and Iceland lie in the field of pharma, healthcare and biotech space, finance, hospitality and tourism services.

Historical Background

India is one of Switzerland's principal partners in Asia. The two countries signed the Treaty of Friendship in the year 1948.
Since then, Switzerland and India have signed numerous bilateral agreements that cover a wide range of areas such as trade, education and vocational training, visas, migration, air traffic, investment, finance, taxation, and scientific and technological cooperation.

The Indian President addressed the Federal Council of Switzerland (which is the highest executive authority of Switzerland) and unveiled a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Villeneuve, Switzerland.
Both the countries agreed to have their first automatic exchange of information on tax matters.
Switzerland is the largest exporter to India from Europe.
- The bilateral trade volume stands at around US$ 19 billion and India is committed to expand the trading ties further.
The future opportunities lie in the field of capital, technology, science and skills, inter alia for mutual benefit.

Historical Background

The Republic of Slovenia attained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. And, India recognized the independent state of Slovenia in 1992 and supported its candidature for the membership at the UN.
Since then both the nations share cordial bilateral relations.
The balance of trade between the two nations is tilted in favour of India.

This is the first-ever presidential visit from India to Slovenia.
India and Slovenia signed and exchanged seven MoUs and Programmes of Cooperation in the fields of Investment, Sports, Culture, River Rejuvenation (Clean Ganga Mission), Science & Technology and Standards.
India sought for Slovenia's support in its bid to get permanent membership at the UN Security Council and the membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
The future cooperation possibilities between the two countries lie in the fields of high technology (especially clean technology), robotics and artificial intelligence, start-ups and innovation sectors.