New Delhi, May 10 (KNN) Netherlands Minister of Foreign Affairs Bert Koenders who is on a four-day official visit to India met with the Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj, External Affairs Minister earlier this week. The discussions   included strengthening of bilateral trade agreements between India and Netherlands.

The Ministers observed that in the recent times India and Netherlands have had an ‘upswing’ bilateral relation. They also spoke of economic ties between the two countries as Netherlands is India’s fifth largest investment partner with an investment amounting up to 20.5 billion dollars.

In 2016 the bilateral trade amounted to Rs6.3 billion dollars, both Sushma and Koenders agreed to explore the potential of taking it further.

Other key focus areas discussed in the meeting included involvement of companies from Netherlands in Indian flagship projects such as Make in India and Swachh Bhaarat.

Sushma also invited the Dutch companies to explore possibilities of tying up for water and waste management projects, renewable energy, smart cities initiative and logistics management.  Netherland is already in part of two water treatment projects; Local Treatment of Urban Sewage Streams for Healthy Re-use (LOTUS) in Delhi and Dutch-Indo Water Alliance Leadership Initiative (DIWALI) in Baroda

The two countries celebrate 70 years of diplomatic ties this year. (KNN/ DA)