Sushma Swaraj Discusses Bilateral Ties With South African President Cyril Ramaphosa
United Nations: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met nine leaders from across the globe in a whirlwind of bilateral interactions and spoke at the Nelson Mandela Peace Summity. India is one of 129 countries that have signed the pledge drafted by Trump on commitment towards international fight against drugs.
Sushma Swaraj met the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Spain, Ecuador, Colombia, Mongolia, Nepal, Morocco, Lichtenstein and Federica Mogherini, the European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs. The topics discussed during the meetings with the foreign ministers depended on the relations with those countries and ranged from strategic cooperation to trade and investment. Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale participated in the Special Meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) — a 26-member forum for cooperation in promoting peace, security and stability in Asia.
After Sushma Swaraj’s meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar tweeted: “Strategic partnership gaining momentum!” The two countries have been building up their strategic relations reinforced by the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue that includes the US and Japan. At the meeting with Ecuador Foreign Minister Jose Valencia Amores, there were “good discussion on ways to further consolidate bilateral relationship in the areas of trade, agriculture, pharma, IT and capacity building”, according to Kumar.
With Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, Sushma Swaraj “explored ways to intensify ties in investment, renewable energy, water treatment, tourism and their contribution to our flagship initiatives”, according to Kumar. Mogherini and Sushma Swaraj “discussed issues related to trade and investment and exchanged views on the regional and global issues,” Kumar said in a tweet. He noted that India and the EU were bound by a “strategic partnership based on common values of democracy, freedom and rule of law.”
On relations with Morocco, he noted that they stretched back to the time of Ibn Battuta, the 14th century explorer, and tweeted that Sushma Swaraj and “Morocco Foreign Minister, Nasser Bourita discussed strengthening cooperation in areas of commerce, pharma, cyber security, defence and culture”. (IANS)
