COPENHAGEN (Denmark): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday invited Nordic companies to invest in the Blue Economy sector, including the Sagarmala project and asked the sovereign wealth funds of the Nordic countries to invest in India.
As a part of Sagarmala Programme, more than 800 projects at an estimated cost of around Rs 5.48 lakh crore have been identified for implementation. Sagarmala projects include projects from various categories such as modernisation of existing ports and terminals, new ports, terminals, inland waterways, lighthouse tourism and skill development, etc.
PM Modi made this pitch at the 2nd India-Nordic Summit. This summit saw the participation of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark, Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir of Iceland, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland.
PM Modi and his counterparts from Nordic countries agreed to work together to fight and address climate change and protect the natural environment in accordance with the Paris Agreement.
The Summit provided an opportunity to review the progress of the India-Nordic relations since the 1st India-Nordic Summit, which was held in 2018 in Stockholm.
“Discussions were held on multilateral cooperation in post-pandemic economic recovery, climate change, sustainable development, innovation, digitalization, and green and clean growth. Discussions were also held on cooperation in maritime sector with a focus on sustainable ocean management. Prime Minister invited Nordic companies for investing in the Blue Economy sector, especially in India’s Sagarmala project,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a press release.
The Prime Ministers agreed to work together to fight and address climate change and to protect the natural environment in accordance with the Paris Agreement, according to a joint statement.
The Summit noted that the acceleration of the global green transition to combat climate change is one of the greatest and most imminent global challenges.
“At the same time, successful transition to sustainable economy offers huge opportunities including new jobs. The need for setting ambitious goals for reducing emissions and concrete implementation plans was underlined, which will facilitate business actors’ contribution to accelerating the transition,” the JOINT statement read.
The Prime Ministers welcomed the international agreement at COP26 on the need for accelerated climate action for holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degree above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degree above pre-industrial level.
According to the statement, India and the Nordic countries are committed to ambitious cooperation on renewable energy, energy diversification, smart grids and energy efficiency.
The leaders furthermore discussed collaboration on environmental sustainability including clean water, clean air and circular economy, which is critically important, not only to maintain and support biodiversity, water and wildlife, but also as a basis for food security, human health and prosperity.
The statement said that India and Nordic countries are also committed to adopting the ambitious Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework in the upcoming 2nd Part of COP15 of Convention on Biological Diversity to be held at Kunming, China and work together in its implementation.
Bilateral relations
The India-Nordic Summit will go a long way in boosting India’s ties with the region, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday after he participated in India-Nordic Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The second India-Nordic summit saw the participation of the Prime Ministers of Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. This meeting came shortly after PM Modi held bilateral meetings with the Nordic leaders. “The India-Nordic Summit will go a long way in boosting India’s ties with the region. Together, there is much that our nations can achieve and contribute to global prosperity and sustainable development,” PM Modi tweeted.
Addressing a press special briefing, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said three clusters that ran common to the Nordic Summit.
“One, need to combine the skill capability of Nordic countries with the scale of India. Two, clean and green growth solutions and three, to forge new innovation partnerships,” he said.
Kwatra said that discussions during the India-Nordic summit were held in three clusters. “One, relating to multilateral cooperation in the context of COVID aftermath. Two, the climate and sustainable development and blue economy. Three, the innovation segment,” he said.
Listing out the key points which came up during the summit, the Foreign Secretary said Prime Minister Modi appreciated the Nordic countries as very reliable partners in the last 75 years of India’s journey of growth and economic development.
“It was noted that Nordic countries in India have shared values of freedom, democracy and the rules-based order. And also share perspectives on various global matters,” he said.
“The areas of board cooperative partnership essentially focused on: One, the urban renewal. Two, river cleaning. Three is the entire domain of renewable energy. Four is skill development.”
PM Modi also said that there is a need for temporary TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver for vaccine production globally with the view to ensuring vaccine availability for the needy countries, Kwatra said.
The Foreign Secretary said PM also reiterated the five commitments that India made during the COP26 summit. This summit was a follow up to the first summit that took place in Stockholm, Sweden in 2018. The Stockholm Summit was the 1st time India engaged with the Nordic countries as a group on a single platform. (ANI)