World News | President Kovind Wraps Up His Visit to Netherlands

Amsterdam, Apr 7 (PTI) President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday wrapped up his visit to the Netherlands where he held talks with the country's top leadership and discussed ways to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in the priority sectors like water, agriculture, health, climate and clean energy, besides the regional and global developments, including the Ukraine crisis.

The maiden visit of the President to the Netherlands from April 4-7 marked an important milestone as India and the Netherlands celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations this year. It was also the first Head of State visit from India to the Netherlands in 34 years.

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Kovind and First Lady Savita Kovind visited the European country on the invitation of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands.

In his meeting with King Willem-Alexander, the President highlighted the natural partnership and synergies between India and the Netherlands as two democracies, major economies, drivers of innovation and technology and as key advocates of free and open Indo-Pacific, the MEA said in a statement after the visit.

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They discussed ways to further strengthen cooperation in priority sectors of water, agriculture, health, climate and clean energy, people-to-people and cultural cooperation. Both the leaders also exchanged views on current regional and global developments, including the situation in Ukraine.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Wednesday hosted the President at a government lunch here during which they discussed ways of further strengthening the relations between India and the Netherlands.

In his discussions with the Dutch Prime Minister, the President recalled the Virtual Summit held between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Rutte on April 9, 2021 and the announcement of Strategic Partnership on Water.

Both sides expressed happiness at the signing of Joint Statement on Strategic Partnership on Water on March 29, 2021 between the Minister of Jal Shakti and Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and Water which lays a roadmap for intensifying bilateral cooperation in this key sector leveraging Dutch expertise and experience in addressing a number of common water related challenges, the statement said.

The President welcomed Dutch start-ups and SMEs working in the field of geospatial mapping, Artificial Intelligence, clean energy, assistive technology and bio-medical devices to ‘Make in India' and innovate in India.

On the sidelines of the visit, several key documents were announced. They included: Extension of MoU on bilateral cooperation in the field of Ports, Maritime Transport and Logistics; Extension of the Programme of Cooperation between Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, Government of the Netherlands; MoU for the Cosmos Malabaricus Project between Leiden University and the Kerala Council of Historical Research, National Archives of the Netherlands on digitising 17th century archives and making them available to Indian and International researchers, and Extension of MoU with State Archives Department, Kerala and National Archives of the Netherlands on the execution of the Shared Cultural Heritage Programme.

The President also exchanged views with the President of the Senate, Jan Anthonie Bruijn and President of the House of Representatives, Vera Bergkamp on democratic practices and parliamentary exchanges.

The President, who arrived in Amsterdam on Monday from Turkmenistan on the concluding leg of his two-nation visit, also addressed a gathering of Indian community and friends of India, including representatives of Surinami-Hindustani community members in the Netherlands where he acknowledged the positive contribution made by them to the host country and their role as living bridge between India and the Netherlands.

India and the Netherlands enjoy long-standing friendly and multi-faceted relations with a broad agenda of cooperation marked by shared values of democracy, rule of law and growing convergences on global and regional issues.

The state visit of the President, which took place as both India and the Netherlands celebrate 75th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties, reflected and reiterated the commitment to further deepen the relationship for mutual benefit of both peoples.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)