Stockholm, May 17 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Sweden is “very significant”, India’s Ambassador Anurag Bhushan said on Sunday.

In an interview with IANS, Bhushan noted that PM Modi’s visit is also significant as it is happening in Gothenburg, a very old city of Sweden, which has now developed into a technology, industrial and innovation heart of the Scandinavian country.

PM Modi will arrive in Sweden later on Sunday after concluding his visit to the Netherlands. He had earlier visited Sweden in 2018 for the first-ever India-Nordic Summit.

Elaborating on PM Modi’s engagements in Sweden, Anurag Bhushan said: “The Honourable Prime Minister will come today. He is coming at the invitation of Swedish Prime Minister Mr Ulf Kristersson. So, of course, he is going to have a bilateral consultation with Mr Kristersson and his leadership team. Thereafter, the Honourable Prime Minister will also have engagements with the business community of Sweden. He will also address members of the European Roundtable of Industry, which is a group of top companies of Europe. I think it’s a very significant visit.

“It is the second visit by our Prime Minister. He first came in 2018. But this visit is also significant because it is happening in Gothenburg. This would be the very first visit by any Indian Prime Minister to this beautiful city, which is a very old city, set up in 1620, and it has developed into the technology, industrial and innovation heart of Sweden. It is also a centre where a lot of Indians live. So altogether it is a visit of great significance,” he added.

Anurag Bhushan stated that PM Modi’s visit to Sweden is taking place against the backdrop of India concluding its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union. He termed India’s ties with Sweden “long-standing and diversified”.

“It (visit) is also happening against the backdrop of India concluding its Free Trade Agreement with the European Union and also the two other relevant FTAs, including the one with EFTA countries and the other one with the UK. I’d like to point out here that India’s relationship with Sweden is a very long-standing one and a highly diversified one. We have a very rich economic partnership, in particular.”

“There are over 300 Swedish companies working in India, providing employment opportunities to 4 lakh people. We have 75 Indian companies working in Sweden as well. So we have a very vibrant and active economic partnership. We are very hopeful that this visit by the Honourable Prime Minister, together with his engagement with Swedish CEOs and European CEOs, will lead to greater cooperation and opportunities between India, Indian as well as Swedish and European industries to collaborate,” he added.

Anurag Bhushan expressed hope that there will be greater collaboration between the two nations in advanced manufacturing, green technologies, circular economies, renewable energy and other sectors.

“Beyond that, Sweden is also known for its innovation and sustainability, and this is one of the central pillars of our cooperation. So we are hopeful that we will see a lot of opportunities for further development in this direction. Already, we see greater vibrancy happening in the AI Impact Summit earlier this year. Over 80 Swedish companies participated in this event, and this was the second largest delegation. So, not just big companies, even startups and mid-sized companies also participated. So, we are going to see, hopefully, after this visit, greater collaboration in advanced manufacturing, green technologies, circular economies, renewable energy and so on.”

He recalled that India and Sweden had started an innovation-based relationship during PM Modi’s first visit in 2018.

“When the Honourable Prime Minister came in 2018, we started our innovation-based relationship. So, innovation, sustainability, green tech, and circular economies, these have become one of the central themes of our partnership. Sweden is a world leader in innovation and in sustainability, and there are world-beating companies that have developed technologies, practices, and institutions centred around those themes. On the other hand, India provides a market that can provide the scale and space for Swedish companies to work in. So, I’m hoping that the Honourable Prime Minister’s visit will galvanise a lot of Swedish industry into looking at India even more seriously than they do and look at some of the potentialities that have emerged out of our policy formulations, such as Startup India, Digital India, Smart Cities and so on.”

–IANS

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