EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
THE AMBASSADOR DIARIES
INDIA-NORDIC PARTNERSHIP AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME
BY THE ANANTA ASPEN CENTRE INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE, NEW DELHI 28TH JUNE, 2018
The Ananta Aspen Centre, an independent organisation focused on leadership development and encouraging comprehensive dialogue on the most important issues facing Indian society, invited the ambassadors and head of missions of the five Nordic countries to India- Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Sweden- to discuss and provide their inputs on the theme of ' India-Nordic Partnership: An Idea Whose Time Has Come ' in an event hosted at the India International Centre in New Delhi on 28 June 2018.
Mr. Ashok Sajjanhar, President of the Institute of Global Studies and former Ambassador of India to Kazakhstan, Sweden and Latvia, chaired the event. Mr. Sajjanhar began the event by welcoming the panellists and providing a brief overview of India-Nordic relations in the context of recent developments, including the first India-Nordic Summit which was held in Stockholm in April 2018, where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Nordic counterparts for a full day of bilateral and multilateral talks. Given India ' s substantial role in the world economy, having consistently experienced a GDP growth rate of over 7 percent, as well as the growing demands of its over 1 billion strong population, there is a lot that the five Nordic countries with their vast expertise in the areas of innovative and clean technologies, green energy, waste management and digitisation can offer to the former as it continues to solidify its place as a leading power in the global arena. While India ' s ties with this bloc of countries has been growing, it has yet to reach its full potential in terms of realising the wide array of possibilities that exist therein.
Over the course of the two-hour event, the five panellists- H. E. Mr. Thorir Ibsen, Ambassador of Iceland to India;
62 • Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 6 • Issue 7 • July 2018, Noida