India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, arrived in Portugal on Saturday 24th June and praised the contribution of more than 65,000 of his countrymen living and working here.
Modi said that these were India’s “real ambassadors” and have enriched the culture of the country that they have made their home.
The Indian Prime Minister addressed Indian diaspora at the Radha Krishna temple in Lisbon and said that India is fast moving ahead and touching new heights in many fields.
“Indians have carried their cultural heritage with them and have always been proud of this,” said Modi while the Portuguese prime minister cited the diversity of language and culture in India, saying that Indians adapt to the culture of the country to which they move.
Perhaps not aware of football star Cristiano Ronaldo’s current taxation embarrassment in Spain, Modi said that Portugal is tied with India in many ways, including through sports:
“Who has not heard of Christiano Ronaldo. His name fills every sportsperson in India with energy.”
Modi is the first Indian prime minister to visit Portugal on a bilateral State visit, although Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India’s tenth prime minister (1998 to 2004) had visited the country for a European Union conference in 2000.
Modi visited the Champalimaud Foundation, a leading cancer research and treatment centre in Portugal and the two premiers agreed a €4 million deal to boost research, along with signing 11 agreements already discussed during António Costa’s visit to India during a State visit in January this year, covering the fight against terrorism and the development of trade, science and culture relations.(* see below for list)
Following the invasion of Goa by Indian Union troops in December 1961, Portugal and India reestablished diplomatic relations after the revolution on 25th April, 1974.
Modi's speech read as follows:
Your Excellency Prime Minister Antonio Costa,
Distinguished delegates,
Members of the Media,
At the outset, I wish to convey our deepest condolences and sympathies for the victims of the devastating forest fires in Portugal last week. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.
Friends,
We are two countries with deep historical connections and strong economic and people to people ties. It is, therefore, surprising for me to know that there had never been a bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Portugal. However, I take satisfaction in the fact that this is the second Summit between India and Portugal within a period of six months. I am grateful to Prime Minister Costa for receiving me with such warmth and affection, and at such short notice. We were honoured to welcome Prime Minister Costa in India in January, not only for a bilateral visit, but also as our Chief Guest at the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas, the Indian Diaspora Day celebrations. Prime Minister Costa represents the best of the Indian Diaspora across the world.
Friends,
Prime Minister Costa and I have held wide-ranging discussions today and reviewed the progress achieved since his own landmark visit to India. Our economic ties continue to follow an upward trajectory. Bilateral trade has grown 17% last year. And, the foreign direct investment from Portugal to India, though small, has doubled during 2016-17. But, there is much more that we can do to increase the flow of goods, services, capital and human resources between our two economies. In the regard, Portuguese economic rebound and strong Indian growth offer excellent opportunities for us to grow together. Friends, Portugal has emerged as one of the most vibrant European ecosystems for entrepreneurship. India too is home to robust and dynamic Start-Ups industry. The Start-up sphere is an exciting space that blends youth, ideas, technology, innovation and creativity to generate value and wealth for the benefit of the society. During his visit to India, Prime Minister Costa and I had discussed the India-Portugal International Start-up Hub. I am pleased to see it being realized in such a short time. I look forward to its joint launch with Prime Minister Costa. The new agreements in the fields of taxation, administrative reforms, science, space, youth affairs & sports outline the expanding scope of our partnership. Our cooperation in Science and Technology is also gaining momentum. To support our collaboration in cutting edge technology, we have agreed to set up a Joint S&T Fund of 4 million Euros. We are also keen to learn from Portuguese expertise in nanotechnology, marine sciences and oceanography. Space is a new area of our bilateral cooperation. This idea was born when PM Costa visited India earlier this year. We look forward to engaging with Portugal in the Atlantic International Research Centre, both in the Space and Ocean Science fields.
Friends,
Our two countries share vibrant and growing people to people ties. The Indian Diaspora in Portugal has played an important role in deepening our bilateral ties. Portuguese passion for football runs deep. Prime Minister Costa himself is a big football fan. This could form another link to further connect our societies. Our cultural engagement is expanding. We have set up a Chair for Indian Studies in University of Lisbon. Indian films are being subtitled in Portuguese. And, a Hindi-Portuguese dictionary is being developed for our mutual benefit. I also thank Portugal for sharing with us a digital version of 12,000 documents comprising exchange of letters between Goa and Portugal in the 17th century. This important archive will greatly benefit our researchers.
Friends,
India and Portugal are strong partners in the international arena. We thank Portugal for your consistently support for India’s permanent membership of the UN Security Council, as well as of the multilateral export control regimes. We are also determined to deepen our cooperation against terrorism and violent extremism. Excellency,
I would like to once again thank you for your warm welcome and gracious hospitality, and for taking time out of your busy schedule for us.
Muito Obrigado
Thank you very much.
* List of memoranda of understanding
1. The establishment of a joint fund between the two nations amounting to €4 million. This joint fund is established to provide a push to research in science and technology. Both Space as well as Ocean sciences comes under the ambit of joint studies and development. The fund aims to establish a unique centre – the Atlantic International Research Centre on the Azores Archipelago. According to the press release, the aim of this Centre is to provide a shared environment to foster new climate, earth, space, and marine research. On marine sciences, it is expected that a research on Indian weather patterns including Monsoon and its relation with atmospheric and ocean behaviour of Atlantic will be studied. PM Modi also said we are looking forward to engage with Portugal through the Research Centre. This centre is to act as a bridge in North-South and transatlantic cooperation.
2 DTAA – The double taxation avoidance treaty: A protocol was signed which amended the existing convention between India and Portugal for avoidance of double taxation. According to the official statement, this will ensure avoidance of double taxation and fiscal evasion. This would also help India and Portugal exchange tax related information seamlessly.
3 MoU in Nano-Technology: This has to be worked out between Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research and the International Iberian Nano-technology Lab Portugal.
4 Public Administration and Governance Reforms: Key stakeholders are Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, and Ministry of the Presidency and of Administrative Modernization, Government of Portuguese Republic, for ‘Cooperation in the field of Public Administration and Governance Reforms’ – to quote verbatim from press information bureau India. The aim of this is to understand the customer orientation of public service in Portugal which is understood to be the backbone of an efficient public administration system.
5 Cultural Cooperation: A Cultural cooperation agreement has existed since 1980s. Several cultural exchanges have been undertaken after that. The education exchange program is furthered which is slated to see itself unfolding from 2016 to 2019.
6 Youth and Sports: While not much has been made public on this till now, but according to media outlets PM Modi also stressed on people-to-people ties between the two countries saying Costa’s passion for football would help deepen bilateral ties. ‘An MoU on sports and youth affairs was among nine agreements signed between the two countries after Saturday’s talks.’
7 MoU on Cooperation in the fields of Higher Education and Scientific Research: The Portugese foundation for science and technology is to collaborate with IITs – Madras and Gandhinagar – to take the scientific research forward. This is furthering the earlier tieups with Delhi University and University of Goa that we had.
8. An MoU has been signed in Biotech sector details of which are not public yet.
9. Apart from these, Portugal India Business Hub has signed three MoUs with different business units of Portugal. AICEP Portugal Global, Reira Group Goa Desk, and Chamber of Commerce are parties to these agreements. To boost Start-up culture in India is one of the priorities of these.
A greater collaboration between entrepreneurs and Start Ups of both countries has been envisaged by the leaders of the two countries. The recently concluded summit in Lisbon, in which a large number of successful Indian start-ups had taken part, was lauded by PM Modi and it was hoped that Portugal would be a gateway to EU in business. President Costa promised greater cooperation in issuance of Visas to these business ventures.
