Modi arrives in Sweden for India-Nordic Summit, met at airport by Swedish PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived in Sweden late night on Monday 9:30 pm (local time) as part of the first India-Nordic Summit. He was received by his Swedish counterpart Stefan Lofven at the Stolkhome Arlanda airport.

The Nordics—Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland form a group of country that share history, culture, and traditions. Modi will be having bilaterals with all the heads of states of Nordic countries and take part in the big india Nordic summit. It is the second time in history that Nordic region is holding a summit with another country. The first time it happened was in the tenure of US president Obama.

Nordic countries have globally recognized strengths in clean technologies, environmental solutions, port modernization, food processing, health, agriculture infrastructure, skill development and innovation which are also the focus areas of India’s development.

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India’s trade with the Nordic countries is at around US$ 5.3 billion in 2016-17. Cumulative Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to India from Nordic countries is at US$ 2.5 billion. The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund is one of the biggest single investors in India with investment of over $11.7 billion in India at the end of 2017.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to meet King of Sweden King Carl XVI Gustaf in the morning followed by a walk with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven from Sogerska to Rosenbad.

Modi and Lofven collectively appreciated the presence of the Prime Minister in Sweden while highlighting the fact that after a gap of 30 years an Indian Prime Minister has visited Sweden.

One of the visitors hailed the Union Government's project of Digital India while saying, "We hope that the foreign visits of Prime Minister Modi will strengthen Digital India and his aim of taking lessons from foreign technology and then apply in India will also be fulfilled."

Later in the day, the Prime Ministers of both the countries will sign bilateral agreements followed by a press conference at around 1:30 pm(Sweden local time).

Prime Minister Modi is further scheduled to take part in the Sweden-India business day at the City hall Golden room.

Later Nordic Prime Minister Lofven will conduct a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi at Hotel Grand.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the Indian diaspora outside a hotel in Sweden minutes after arriving in the country to embark on his two-day visit as part of the Indo-Nordic summit.

Further, a group of students from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology of Sweden was also present at the venue to interact with the Prime Minister. They carried the banners that read: "Welcome PM" and shouted slogans of "Bharat Mata ki Jai" and said they are feeling as if they are at home (India).

KTH Royal Institute of Technology of Sweden had been roped in by the Indian government to work along with Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and Madras for its smart cities project.

Another visitor said, "Bharat had an only chance in 2014 and now it has got another chance in 2019 and it must not lose it. The rise of India in past four years is incomparable to that in 15 years. This has helped in increasing the understanding of the Indian culture among other countries."

The forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Modi's visit to the UK will focus on enhancing India-UK tech partnership. He will attend the CHOGM in London from April 19 to 20.

After concluding his visits to Sweden and the UK, the Prime Minister will meet Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin for a brief while and both the leaders will exchange views on a number of bilateral, regional and global issues.