2024-02-21 18:53:58
Kyriakos Mitsotakis is making an official visit to India. The Prime Minister, accompanied by his wife, Mareva Grabovski-Mitsotakis, arrived at the Rashtrapati Bhavan where he was received by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.
At the start of his visit to India, the Prime Minister said:
“It is a real honor to be in India on an official visit, repaying the visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Greece a few months ago. For Greece, the strategic partnership between our two countries is of particular importance and we will have the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues, political consultations, our strategic cooperation, but also the promotion of economic ties between our two countries. It is therefore a real honor to be here and I look forward to the discussions we will have with the Prime Minister.”
Geopolitical developments and economy at the Mitsotakis-Modi meeting
As “K” wrote today, maintaining the dynamic and increasingly regular cooperation between Greece and India is the main purpose of the official visit of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to the Indian subcontinent with an agenda that is centered on the geopolitical situation and, certainly, the synergies in various sectors, including in entrepreneurship, migration and defence. Mr. Mitsotakis will meet in New Delhi this morning with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, followed by extended talks by the delegations of the two countries. The Prime Minister will meet the Vice President of the Republic of India Jagdeep Dhankar at noon, while in the afternoon he will participate as the guest of honor and keynote speaker at the 9th Raisina Dialogue, which is a multilateral conference where issues on geopolitics and economics emerge.
The government believes that the presence of the prime minister at the specific forum is an indication of the importance attached to the ties between Greece and India, but, above all, to the prospect of strengthening them. Tomorrow, Mr. Mitsotakis will go to Mumbai where the Deputy Foreign Minister Kostas Fragogiannis will already be. There, the prime minister will meet representatives of Indian businesses and welcome the Greek-Indian Business Forum. Besides, the prime minister is accompanied in India by a large business delegation that includes representatives of the shipping, financial, construction, high-tech, food and real estate sectors.
The key project framing the relationship between Greece and India is the planned India, Middle East, Europe Corridor (IMEC), through which a large part of southern and western Eurasia is being promoted. It is a project directly competing with One Belt-One Road, which essentially provides for the commercial interconnection of India with Europe, through the ports of the Gulf and then the Levant, with an entry point to the EU. E. Greece.
It is obvious that such a project of bypassing Turkey finds Ankara opposed for reasons and strategies. It is recalled that Turkey maintains excellent relations with India’s strategic competitor and enemy in the region, Pakistan. Given that the project is based on traditional assumptions and of American diplomacy on curbing the influence of the big – mainly continental – powers of Eurasia, in this case China and Russia, the support provided – for the time being – is not at all paradoxical. and from Washington.
Also of distinct value is the fact that the Indian Navy is the only non-Western military formation that has been activated to keep open the Red Sea passage, which is currently under threat from Houthi rebels. The Suez Canal is one of two sea straits of vital importance to the Indian economy (the other being the Straits of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia), therefore the situation in the Red Sea directly threatens Indian interests.
Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis is already in India since yesterday, who met with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar with whom they discussed the entire wide range of bilateral cooperation. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Gerapetritis referred to the great possibilities of cooperation between the two countries, while his Indian counterpart showed a particular interest in being informed about the plans for the transfer of “green” hydrogen, and about the possibility of a regional meeting of Mediterranean countries with India.
Source kathimerini.gr