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India and Greece will soon sign a mobility and migration partnership agreement to ease skilled migration between the two countries and aim to double bilateral trade by 2030, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Indian PM and his Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in their bilateral meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday, discussed strengthening of cooperation in multiple areas. including defence, security, education, start-ups, shipping, trade, investment, agriculture and tourism.
Modi said that the visit of the Greek PM to India after 16 years was a historic occasion. “It’s a matter of happiness that we are heading towards doubling the bilateral trade by 2030,” he said in a press statement following his meeting with Mitsotakis.
India-Greece bilateral trade in 2022-23 was about $2 billion, with India’s exports at $785.72 million and imports at $1.16 billion, per government data.
Noting Nothing that he was visiting India for the first time in his official capacity, Mitsotakis said the two leaders were continuing to build on the positive momentum in bilateral relationship.
“The joint declaration that we signed in Athens a few months ago and which upgraded our relationship to a strategic level is already being put into practice. And as the Prime Minister said, we are making significant progress towards deepening the strategic cooperation in all spheres–security and defence, investment and trade, science and technology, cyberspace, education, culture, tourism, agriculture,” he said.
On the mobility pact, Modi said it will boost people-to-people ties that have been historically robust. “To make skilled migration between the two countries easier, we have decided to strike a Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement soon,” he said.
Mobility pact
Mitsotakis, too, was upbeat about the mobility pact, and expressed hope that it would be signed soon. “It will constitute a very important step towards strengthening our cooperation in issues such as illegal migration, fighting human trafficking, but also offering young Indians an opportunity to come and work in Greece and benefit from the growth of our economy…,” he said in his statement.
The Indian PM welcomed Greece’s joining of the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative and said that the countries were in agreement on all disputes and tensions being resolved through dialogue and diplomacy.
IMEC
Later, at the inaugural session of the Raisina Dialogue 2024, Mitsotakis highlighted the “great promise” of the proposed India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). He said that it would supercharge connectivity between India , the growth economies of Middle East and Europe and Greece could play an important part. “One has to just look at the map to realise that Greece is sitting right in the centre of this new corridor. And we are your natural door step to Europe and beyond,” he said.
The war in Gaza and the turmoil in the Middle East were destabilising factors, but had not undermined the profound logic behind the IMEC, he said. “Nor should it weaken our resolve to work tirelessly towards materialising it.... IMEC in its heart is also a peace project which will bring stability and prosperity for all participating countries,” the PM said.
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