India, Norway to team up on blue economy and development goals

NEW DELHI: India and Norway on Tuesday agreed to closely collaborate on the ocean economy and the Sustainable Development Goals and to boost bilateral trade as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with his Norwegian counterpart Erna Solberg.

During delegation-level talks, Modi and Solberg discussed ways to give “new energy and direction” to bilateral ties. The two sides signed an MoU for an IndiaNorway Ocean Dialogue.

Solberg, who arrived here on Monday on her maiden visit to India, was accorded a ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan before the talks with Modi.

“We reviewed all areas of cooperation and discussed ways of giving new energy and direction to bilateral ties,” Modi said in a statement after the talks. He said they had “fruitful discussions” on all aspects of the ocean economy.

Solberg said given the importance of India’s economy, the world won’t be able to achieve the SDGs unless “India is on board”. She said: “As the world’s largest democracy, India plays an important role both regionally and globally. We had an open and constructive dialogue on how we can work more closely together to protect rules based international governance.” She added, “I think it is important that both big countries like India and smaller countries like Norway join forces and talk about multilateralism in times when there is increased protectionism.”

People familiar with developments said India raised the issue of Norwegian regulations that insist on the entire face being visible in photos used for official purposes, and pointed out that such rules impose restrictions on the use of turbans by Sikhs. The Indian side conveyed that this was a matter of serious concern for the Sikh community and the Norwegian side it would examine the matter, the people said.