‘India-Middle-East-Europe Economic Corridor will be a game changer’

Indian PM Modi said that the Gulf countries played a positive role and the US and Europe too supported India on this

COPENHAGEN: A massive fire ripped through the old stock exchange of Denmark on Tuesday morning, with plumes of smoke billowing through the historic building of the Scandinavian country, reported CNN.

The Borsen building, has notably been at the heart of Danish business since the 17th century.

Moments before the building

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that India-Middle-East-Europe Economic Corridor, for which an agreement was reached during the G20 summit hosted India last year, will be a “big game changer like the silk route”.

In an interview with ANI, PM Modi also talked about consensus reached at the G20 summit on the declaration, among speculations in some quarters that such an outcome collapsed and crashed onto the street below, commuters and bystanders, stunned, watched as the raging fire was spotted swirling around the building’s iconic 56-meter spire, according to CNN.

There have been no casualties recorded as of yet, and Copenhagen police have advised people to stay away from the area.

According to a police spokesperson, will be difficult due to difference in positions on the UkraineRussia conflict.

PM Modi said he pushed forward the consensus declaration to cause a surprise.

Referring to India-MiddleEast-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), he said Gulf countries played a positive role and the US and Europe too supported India on this. people were inside the building when the fire broke out, but they were all evacuated timely.

Situated within a short stroll from Christiansborg Palace, the old stock exchange was established in 1625.

It was constructed in the Dutch Renaissance style, at the request of King Christian IV.

Following the horrific fire incident,

The handshake between the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and US President Joe Biden at the G20 had evoked headlines globally.

“When we work for the global good, there are no personal ifs and buts...you can take the world on board. And my attempt was, tell me how G8 and G20 were born. The issues for which these were formed we should never divert Denmark’s minister of culture, Jakob Engel-Schmidt claimed that 400 years of cultural legacy has been damaged.

“How touching it is to see how the employees at Borsen, good people from the emergency services and passers-by work together to rescue art treasures and iconic images from the burning building,” he wrote in a post on X. from those issues. And in that, everyone was convinced by me. With some people, I needed to talk personally. I did that too. Secondly, my intention was that I will not bring the resolution on the last day, in the last session. I will do it so early that people will be surprised. And so I completed the declaration work of the second day, on the first day itself .... so that was my strategy and that strategy worked,” PM Modi said.

Replying to a query on the “classic handshake” between US President and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, he said PM Modi said he has friendship with both the leaders.

“We have worked on the IMEC, which is going to be a big game changer like the Silk Route was a game changer. There was a positive and proactive role of the Gulf countries. India got an opportunity to play a good role. The US and Europe were with us. And everyone thought that there would be a concrete, positive outcome. So we used to meet on that,” he said.

“So there was an opportunity to get the Saudi King and President Biden together, and I have a good friendship with both,” he added.

India, the US, UAE, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union had signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish the IndiaMiddle East-Europe Economic Corridor during the New Delhi G20 Summit held in September last year.

The Prime Minister underlined that G20 events were held in every state of India and said while the guests got to see different parts of the country, the citizens alos learnt about G20.

“I could have hosted G20 in Delhi. I didn’t do that. We did G20 events in every state of India. People should get the opportunity to see that state. The state should get a global platform for its exposure. For me, every corner of my country is my country,” he said.

PM Modi also responded to a question about apprehensions in certain sections of foreign media about democracy sliding if he grows stronger and said India is mother of democracy.

“The first thing is that what is their terminology and what is the basis of their coming to this conclusion. This is a matter of research in itself. But I don’t understand this that in a country where 6 lakh panchayats are run by the elected people, and where elections are held on a regular basis, there are so many states and so many party governments. In our country, there might hardly be a political party that has not been in power somewhere. So despite all this, if he says that someone is becoming the supreme leader, then I think he has a lack of knowledge,” he said.

The G20 summit led to the consolidation of a comprehensive framework with the objective of fostering enhanced collaboration among the G20 member nations, the European Union, and the African Union, which was formally inducted into the bloc at the New Delhi summit.

India’s G20 Presidency had achieved an early breakthrough on the first day as G20 members agreed to a joint statement in which there was consensus .