PM Narendra Modi Will Visit In 3 European Countries First Week Of May

In the first week of May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to go to three European countries: Germany, Denmark, and France. The tour, which would be PM Modi’s first overseas trip this year, will include two critical bilateral meetings in Germany and France.

However, the PM will spend the majority of his tour in Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital, where he will participate in the second India Nordic summit. The summit will bring together leaders from all five Nordic countries, including Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland, to discuss clean technology, climate change, renewable energy, and other topics.

In April of 2018, the inaugural India-Nordic summit was held in Stockholm, Sweden, a format that brings together India and all countries in the Nordic or Northern European region.

In the previous two years, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has held virtual summits with three Nordic countries: Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, the most of any region of the world. In May 2016, when then-US President Barack Obama met with the five Nordic countries, a meeting with a similar format took place.

There has also been an improvement in India-Denmark relations. Mette Frederiksen, the Prime Minister of Denmark, paid a state visit to India in October 2021.

That was the first visit to India by a Head of State since the COVID-19 pandemic. Surprisingly, India and Denmark have forged a new Green Strategic Partnership during the Virtual Summit in September 2020. The collaboration focuses on green technologies and long-term solutions in fields such as renewable energy.

His trip to Berlin will be for the Inter-Governmental Consultations, during which he will meet with new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for the first time. Every two years, the Indo German IGC alternates between the two countries. The most recent IGC was held in Delhi in 2019, for which German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid a visit to the country. Because of the covid pandemic, the sixth IGC is delayed by more than two years.

The Prime Minister’s travel to France comes just after the outcome of crucial presidential elections. France has emerged as an important partner of India in a number of areas, including defence, education, and counter-terrorism. The Prime Minister last visited France in August 2019 at President Macron’s invitation for the 2019 G-7 Summit, when India was one of the ‘Goodwill’ partners. In the midst of the catastrophic second wave of the covid epidemic, France sent 18 oxygen plants to hospitals across India, enough to provide the country’s oxygen needs for the next ten years.

The journey to Europe coincides with the European Union’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has had major geopolitical ramifications and resulted in an exodus of Ukrainian refugees.

This is a topic that has dominated global discussion and will undoubtedly be one of the main topics of discussion, particularly from the European perspective.

Two prominent European leaders, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen, will visit India ahead of the PM’s visit. While the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will be in India on April 21 and 22, the President of the European Commission will be there on April 24 and 25.

The Raisina Dialogue 2022 will feature President von der Leyen as the keynote speaker. “Russia’s conflict against Ukraine will also be discussed,” the European Union Mission in Delhi stated in a statement.