Describing Cyprus as a “reliable partner” of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called for strengthening bilateral cooperation, which has “immense potential for development”.
Modi, who arrived here in the first phase of his visit to three countries, made this comment while attending a business round table conference with Cyprus President Nicos Christodolidase. Addressing business leaders, Modi highlighted “immense possibilities of development” in bilateral relations.
He said, “Cyprus has long been India’s reliable partner.”
In a post on X after the meeting, he said, “Promoting professional relations! I interacted with the CEO leading to President Nicos Christodolidase and I was a leading CEO to strengthen the commercial relations between India and Cyprus.” He said, “Innovation, energy, technology and other fields have immense potential. I also talked about India’s reform path in the last decade.”
In this program, Modi said, “After 23 years, an Indian Prime Minister Cyprus has come and the first event was a business roundtable. It shows how important the economic stakes are for the India-Spris relations.” He said that many Indian companies see the country as the “entrance to Europe”. He also talked about the development story of India and said that the country has focused equally on “easy to do business” as well as “trusting to do business”.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal, while attaching photos of the program in a post on X, said, “To further strengthen investment, technology and business relations.”
He said that the conference was attended by Cyprus and prominent business leaders of Indian companies. He said, “The leaders called for strengthening economic relations in the fields of business, investment, financial services, fintech, start-up, innovation, AI, IT, logistics, defense, connectivity, shipping and mobility.”
Addressing the program, Modi described Cyprus as a “famous tourist destination” and said that India is also focusing on the development and management of the tourist destination, so “close cooperation between our tour operators will be beneficial for both sides.”
He said that there are possibilities of such cooperation in many other areas as well.
According to officials, during the Prime Minister’s visit, an MoU was signed between the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Eurobank of Cyprus to introduce the Integrated Payment Interface (UPI) services for border cross transactions in Cyprus.
In his address, Modi said that due to UPI, today 50 percent of the world’s digital transactions take place in India.
According to officials, the NSE International Exchange Gift City also signed an MoU with the Cyprus Stock Exchange to enable the border flow.
He said that this is the first of its kind between Europe and Gift City India and this will benefit investors in Gift City, Cyprus and Europe.
In a video message on X before the Round Table Conference, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jaiswal said that on this platform, “startups, innovations, innovations, digital payments, shipping, shipbuilding, ports etc. will identify ideas about ways to strengthen India-sprus trade partnership in new areas such as startups, innovation, digital payments, shipping, ship construction, ports etc.,” they will be discussed. ” Modi’s two -day Cyprus Yatra is the first Cyprus Yatra of an Indian Prime Minister in the last two decades.
On his arrival, Christodolidase was welcomed with special honors by Christodolidase at Larnaka International Airport. During the journey, the two leaders will also negotiate to strengthen bilateral relations.
According to a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs, Modi’s visit will “confirm the shared commitment of the two countries to deepen bilateral relations and strengthen India’s association with the Mediterranean region and the European Union.”
From Cyprus, he will go to Canada in Canada to attend the G7 Summit on the invitation of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. After the G7 Summit, Modi will go to Croatia and will meet President Joran Milnoovic and Prime Minister Andrez Plankovic.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, bilateral trade between India and Cyprus remained “stable” between the recent years and was US $ 136.96 million for April 2023-March 2024.
