Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Finnish counterpart Sanna Marin on Tuesday held a virtual summit during which both sides discussed a number of issues like 5G, cooperation in Africa, and the situation in Myanmar and Afghanistan. This was the third Virtual summit of PM Modi with any Nordic country and comes few months before the 2nd India-Nordic summit scheduled to take place in Denmark.
Both leaders announced a Digital Partnership in Future ICT, Future Mobile Technologies and Digital Education. On the digital partnership, both sides will be focusing on Future mobile technologies, focusing on 6G research & development. Finland with companies like Nokia is well known for its technology prowess.
Speaking at the event, PM Modi said, "amid the COVID-19 pandemic, amid the domestic issues, we took care of the needs of the world. We supplied vaccines to 70 countries".
Both leaders stressed on the close relations between India and Finland which were based on shared values of democracy, rule of law, equality, freedom of speech, and respect for human rights. Prime Minister Modi invited Finland to join the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI).
The joint statement had specific mention of Africa. The statement said, "both sides noted the growing importance of Africa and referred to their national efforts to enhance cooperation in and with Africa".
"In this context, they looked forward to bilateral talks on Africa later this year, which will offer an opportunity for more discussion on matters of mutual interest and possible further action," it added.
The discussion at the virtual summit also touched on UN reforms and in this context, Finland's Prime Minister Marin affirmed his country's support for India’s efforts to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
This year India and Europe will have increased engagement. PM will be visiting Portugal in May 2021 for the India EU leaders meeting, followed by a visit to Denmark.
