India Strengthens Nordic Ties As PM Modi Elevates Partnership With Sweden, Norway

New Delhi, May 19 (KNN) Prime Minister Narendra Modi held bilateral talks with Sweden and Norway during his Nordic visit, adopting comprehensive joint action plans to strengthen strategic partnerships across trade, technology, defence, green energy, and people-to-people ties.

India-Sweden: Strategic Partnership Across Four Pillars

In Gothenburg, PM Modi held bilateral consultations with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to elevate the India–Sweden relationship to a strategic partnership, guided by four pillars: Strategic Dialogue for Stability and Security; Next-Generation Economic Partnership; Emerging Technologies and Trusted Connectivity; and Shaping Tomorrow Together—covering people, planet, health, and resilience.

To operationalise the partnership, both sides adopted the India-Sweden Joint Action Plan 2026–2030, providing a roadmap for cooperation across political, economic, technological, security, climate, and cultural domains.

The leaders acknowledged growing momentum across trade and investment, innovation, green transition, defence, digitalisation, SMEs, space, and research, reaffirming shared democratic values and a commitment to sustainability-driven growth.

India-Norway: A Green Strategic Partnership

In Oslo, PM Modi held bilateral talks with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre to elevate bilateral ties to a green strategic partnership, underscoring a shared commitment to sustainability and green growth.

Both sides set an ambition of doubling bilateral trade by 2030 and called on business representatives to work towards meeting the USD 100 billion investment commitment under the India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement, with a goal of creating one million jobs in India.

The leaders tasked their teams to deepen cooperation across the blue economy, marine ecosystem protection, shipbuilding, green shipping, tunnelling, space, artificial intelligence, robotics, cybersecurity, seafarer training, and fisheries.

On clean energy, they called for expanded collaboration in offshore wind, carbon capture utilisation and storage, and larger Norwegian investments in Indian clean energy projects.

Both leaders also agreed to strengthen polar and Arctic research cooperation, explore joint degree programmes and mutual recognition of academic qualifications, and promote mobility of students and faculty.

(KNN Bureau)