Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his counterparts from four Nordic countries as well as Swedish premier during his visit to Sweden. He then flew to London for the second leg of his three-nation tour.
Prime minister Modi is the first Indian premier to visit Sweden in 30 years. He invited Swedish companies to invest in India and to take part in the country’s flagship initiatives like Make in India, Digital India, Start-up India and Smart Cities Mission.
In the bilateral meetings with Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Norway ways to enhance ties in key areas such as trade and investment, and renewable energy were discussed.
Sweden : Swedish PM, Stefan Lofven and Modi decided to strengthen their defence and security cooperation, including in areas of defence production and cybersecurity and agreed on an innovation partnership for a ‘win-win’ outcome.
Sweden backed India’s bid for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) as a part of the Sweden-India Joint Action Plan and extended support to India’s permanent membership of a reformed and expanded United Nations Security Council.
India’s membership to the 48-member elite nuclear club is being primarily opposed by China .
At the Roundtable Meeting, 30 CEOs of Swedish companies committed to invest $1.1 billion in India over the next two years, according to media reports. This is in addition to the $1.5 billion that Swedish companies have invested in India over the last three years. The investors would include of Ikea, AstraZeneca and Volvo trucks.
Demark: Modi met Danish Premier Lars Lokke Rasmussen and held talks on renewing and enhancing cooperation. Bilateral agreements were signed in the areas of animal husbandry, dairying and urban development.
Finland : In an “excellent meeting” with his Finnish Juha Sipila, the two leaders discussed enhancing cooperation in trade and investment, renewable energy, space, waste management, start-up and education.
Iceland: After meeting the premier Katrin Jakobsdottir on the sidelines of the India-Nordic Summit, Modi urged Icelandic companies to look at India as an investment destination in blue economy and geothermal energy and strengthen cooperation in education, tourism and culture.
Norway: The PMOs twitter handle described it as a ‘wonderful meeting between PM Erna Solberg of Norway and PM Narendra Modi’. The interaction was on trade and investment, shipping and port-development, blue economy, renewable energy, health, IT and green transport solutions.