Second India-Nordic Summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the 2nd India-Nordic Summit along with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark, Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir of Iceland, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland.

Details –

• Discussions were held on multilateral cooperation in post-pandemic economic recovery, climate change, sustainable development, innovation, digitalisation, and green and clean growth.
• Discussions were also held on cooperation in maritime sector with a focus on sustainable ocean management. Prime Minister invited Nordic companies for investing in the Blue Economy sector, especially in India’s Sagarmala project.
• India’s partnership with the Nordic region in the Arctic Region was discussed. Prime Minister noted that India’s Arctic Policy provides a good framework for expansion of India-Nordic cooperation in the Arctic region.
• Prime Minister invited the sovereign wealth funds of the Nordic countries to invest in India.

About the ‘Nordic countries’ –

• The Nordic Countries are a group of countries in northern Europe.
• There are 5 Nordic countries — Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland.
• Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are constitutional monarchies and parliamentary democracies. Finland and Iceland are democratic republics.
• Iceland’s parliament, the Althing, is the oldest parliament in the world.
• Sweden is the largest and most populous of the Nordic countries. Iceland is the least populous. Denmark is the smallest.

Background –

• The 1st India-Nordic Summit took place in 2018 in Stockholm.
• The second summit, earlier scheduled to take place in June 2021, was re-convened and held now in May 2022.
• The 2018 India-Nordic Summit reiterated the six countries’ commitment to global security, economic growth, innovation and climate change.

Significance of Nordic countries for India –

• Nordic countries collectively represent an economy of more than $1.6 trillion.
• Total bilateral trade in goods and services between India and the Nordic countries is $13 billion.
• All these countries figure among the top achievers in several areas of human endeavour, particularly innovation, clean energy, green technologies, and education.