New Delhi: India and Portugal on Friday exchanged 14 agreements and understandings in the fields of maritime heritage, maritime transport and port development, migration and mobility, start-ups among others.
Both the countries also inked pacts, including Intellectual Property Rights, aerospace, nano-biotechnology, audio visual co-production, yoga, diplomatic training, scientific research and public-policy.
While welcoming his Portuguese counterpart Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on his first state visit to India, President Ramnath Kovind said, “Mr. President, this is your first visit to India, but it is the fourth high level visit exchanged by our two countries during the last three years.”
“Our collaboration in the field of science and technology is making a new head way. I am delighted that Portugal will be our Partner Country at the Technology Summit 2020 to be held in Delhi later this year,” Mr Kovind said.
“Our Start-up collaboration is gaining speed. India looks forward to organizing a Youth Hackathon in September this year in Portugal. To add to our ongoing joint research projects, we are keen to establish new project partnerships in the fields of marine research, nano-technology and other cutting-edge scientific fields under the new Portugal-India 4 Million Euro Joint Research Fund,” he added.
The bilateral trade between India and Portugal has crossed a billion dollars.
“In our discussions today, President Marcelo and I were happy to note that our bilateral trade has crossed a billion dollars. Two-way investments are also rising,” the President said.
“We agreed to harness the full potential of bilateral engagement in sectors like infrastructure, blue economy, renewable energy, water and waste management, IT, tourism and hospitality,” Mr Kovind said.
On military ties between both the nations, he said, “We took positive note of our growing defence engagement and welcomed the convening of the first meeting of the Joint Working Group on Defence yesterday. We look forward to B2B business tie-ups in the defence sector within the framework of Make In India initiative.”
The President termed Joint Declaration on Mobility and Migration as a ‘win-win’ partnership.
“Both of us agreed that the exchanges of women start-up entrepreneurs, hospitality institute students, IIT researchers and the three sister-city partnerships that have been finalized, will foster closer people-to-people ties,” he added.
He also expressed hope that Yoga will soon become a part of the Portuguese school curriculum as over 10,000 students are practicing Yoga in 162 Portuguese schools.
He also appreciated Portugal’s steadfast support for India’s permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council. “We also thank Portugal for its steadfast support in fighting terrorism,” he said.
He also recalled the first India-EU Summit which was held during the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union in the year 2000.
“India looks forward to deepening its engagement with the EU when Portugal takes over the Presidency once again next year,” he expressed.
He also vouched first collaborations for developmental and commercial partnerships in third countries.
“In this context, President Marcelo welcomed India’s decision to apply for Associate Observer membership of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. India looks forward to leveraging its shared lusophone ties in Africa and Latin America through the CPLP platform,” he said.
