Energy, defence and trade on agenda as FS Misri heads to Europe amid West Asia crisis
New Delhi (PTI): Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri will undertake a three-day visit to Paris and Berlin beginning Sunday for high-level talks on energy, trade and defence -- sectors that have become increasingly critical amid a fractured geopolitical landscape.
Misri's visit to France and Germany comes at the end of his trip to the US, where he met Secretary of State Marco Rubio and a number of other senior officials of the Trump administration.
The West Asia crisis and its impact on energy security are expected to figure prominently in Misri's talks with the interlocutors in Paris and Berlin.
In Paris, the foreign secretary will co-chair the India-France Foreign Office Consultations along with Martin Briens, the secretary general of the French Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement on Saturday.
Both Misri and Briens will discuss a wide range of issues, including defence, civil nuclear energy, space, cyber and digital, artificial intelligence and initiatives fostering people-to-people exchanges in addition to the latest global and regional developments, it said.
In Berlin, the foreign secretary will co-chair the India-Germany Foreign Office Consultations alongside Géza Andreas von Geyr, the state secretary of the German Foreign Office, the MEA said.
The discussions would cover diverse domains of bilateral cooperation, including trade and investments, defence and security, technology, green energy, development cooperation, education and people-to-people ties, as well as global and regional matters of mutual interest, it said.
Misri is also expected to meet other dignitaries and senior government officials in both Paris and Berlin.
The foreign secretary's trip follows the visits of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron to India in January and February, respectively.
It will provide an opportunity to review the full spectrum of India's bilateral relations with both countries and advance ongoing cooperation across key priority areas, the MEA said.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
