Modi meets PMs of Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland
Stockholm, April 17: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held separate bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Finland ahead of the first ever India-Nordic Summit here.
Modi held the first meeting with Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
In a tweet, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the to leaders "had a good meeting on renewing and enhancing cooperation and expressed their mutual desire to take the relationship forward".
After the meeting, the two sides exchanged MoUs in the areas of animal urban development, animal husbandry and dairying, food safety and agricultural research and educaion
Modi then met his Icelandic counterpart Katrin Jakobsdottir.
"PM 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," Kumar said.
After the meeting, the two sides signed an MoU on the establishment of the ICCR Chair for Hindi language between the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and the University of Iceland.
Following this, Modi held a meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.
According to the Indian spokesperson, the two leaders had an "engaging interaction" on trade and investment, shipping and port-development, blue economy, renewable energy, health, information technology and green transport solutions.
Finally, the Indian leader met Finnish Prime Minister Juhu Sipila.
"We had excellent discussions on deepening avenues of cooperation between India and Finland," Modi said in a separate tweet.
India and Sweden are co-hosting the India-Nordic Summit on the second and final day of Modi's visit to Sweden.
For India, Nordic countries are a potential source for clean technology, environmental solutions, port modernisation, cold chain, skill development, innovation among other areas.
According to figures provided by the Indian External Affairs Ministry, India's trade with the Nordic countries totaled around $5.3 billion in 2016-17, with cumulative foreign direct investment in India at $2.5 billion.
Earlier on Tuesday, Modi held a bilateral summit with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven following which India and Sweden signed a Joint Action Plan and an Innovation Partnership for a Sustainable Future.
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RJD surprise element in J’khand polls, party candidates leading in 5 of 6 assembly seats
Ranchi(PTI): The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has emerged as a surprise element in the Jharkhand assembly elections with its candidates leading in five of the six seats where the party is contesting, according to trends available on the Election Commission's website on Saturday.
RJD candidates in five assembly seats were leading over sitting BJP legislators.
In 2019, RJD had secured only the Chatra seat where its nominee Satyanand Bhokta won.
In Deoghar, RJD’s Suresh Paswan was leading by 19,581 votes over his nearest rival and BJP's sitting MLA Narayan Das after the third round of counting.
RJD’s Sanjay Prasad Yadav was ahead by 19,867 votes in Godda over BJP MLA Amit Kumar Mandal after the sixth round of counting.
In Koderma, RJD nominee Subhash Prasad Yadav, who was out on bail, was leading by a margin of 3,471 votes over BJP’s sitting legislator Neera Yadav.
Subhas Prasad Yadav, considered to be one of the close aides of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, was recently granted bail by the Supreme Court in a money laundering case.
Party’s Naresh Prasad Singh was leading by 5,159 votes after the fourth round of counting over BJP’s Bishrampur MLA Ramchandra Chandravanshi.
RJD's Sanjay Kumar Singh Yadav was also leading from Hussainabad by 8,213 votes after the fourth round of counting over BJP MLA Kamlesh Kumar Singh.
Party’s candidate Rashmi Prakash, however, was trailing from Chatra by 3,776 votes.
Bhokta did not contest the elections this time, and his daughter-in-law Prakash was given a ticket.
