India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit three European countries in first week of May

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to be on a visit to threeEuropean countries, including Germany, Denmark, and France in the first week of May.

The visit, which is the first foreign visit of PM Modi this year, will see twokey bilateral engagements in Germany and France. But a substantial portion of visit will be in Denmark's capital Copenhagen where PM will take part in the second India Nordic summit.

Leaders of all fiveNordic countries, including Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland will participate in the summit that will focus on clean technology, climate change, renewables etc. The first India-Nordic summit took place in Sweden's capital Stockholm in April of 2018, a format that brings together India along with all the countries in the Nordic or Northern European countries.

In the last twoyears, Indian PM Modi has had virtual summits with threeNordic countries,Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, which is highest in any specific region of the world. A similar format meeting has taken with the US as well in May 2016 when the then US President Obama held meeting with the fiveNordic countries.

An upswing in India-Denmark ties has been seen as well. Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen was on a state visit to India in October 2021. That was the first visit by a Head of Government to India following the COVID-19 pandemic. Interestingly, India and Denmark have a unique Green Strategic Partnership which was established during the Virtual Summit held in September 2020. The partnership focuses on green technologies and sustainable solutions in sectors like renewable energy.

His visit to Berlin will be for the Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC) during which he will hold first ever in-person talks with new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The Indo German IGC meets every twoyears alternatively between the twocountries. The last IGC was in 2019 in Delhi for which the then German chancellor Angela Merkel had visited the country. The sixth IGC happens with a day of over twoyears because of the covid pandemic.

PM's visit to France comes immediately after the result of key Presidential elections. France has emerged as key partner of India in several sectors, from Defense to education to counter terror. PM last visited France in August 2019 at the special invitation of President Macron for the 2019 G-7 Summit, where India was one of the ‘Goodwill’ partners. Amid the deadly second wave of covid pandemic, France provided 18 oxygen plants to hospitals across India which will fulfill oxygen requirements for 10 years.

The visit to Europe comes as the bloc is facing the Russian invasion of Ukraine which has had huge geopolitical consequences and an influx of Ukrainian refugees. This is something that has dominated the global conversation and will naturally be one of the key focus areas of talks, especially from European side.

Ahead of PM's visit, twotop European leaders, UK PM Boris Johnson and President of the European Commission Ursula Von Der Leyen will be on India visit. While UK PM will be on India visit April 21 and 22, the President of EC will be in the country on April 24 and 25.President von der Leyen will be the chief guest at the Raisina Dialogue 2022. A statement by the European Union Mission in Delhi said, "Russia's war against Ukraine will also feature in discussions."