President Ram Nath Kovind's 'Euro trip' to tackle climate change

President Ram Nath Kovind will be on a three-nation visit to Iceland, Switzerland and Slovenia from September 9-17, during which the focus will be on climate change and growing engagement with Europe.

Deputy Press Secretary to the President, Dr Nimish Rustagi said, "The President looks forward to having engagement with his counterparts and also engaging with the business community and students of these countries."

While he will be meeting top leadership in all the three countries, he will also be engaging with students at universities of these countries and business leadership.

As to whether Kashmir will be discussed during the meetings, Gitesh Sarma, Secretary (West) in Ministry of External Affairs, said, "When leaders meet, there is a structure in which regional, international, global multilateral issues of national concerns are discussed. We use this opportunity to brief each other. This is a very good setting to hear at the highest level what our perspective is."

Kovind's first leg of the visit will be to Iceland, where the focus will be on jointly dealing with climate change. He will deliver a lecture at the University of Iceland in the capital Reykjavík on how the two nations can help towards a greener planet.

This will be followed by a visit to Switzerland from September 11 to 15. Here, he will unveil a bust of Mahatma Gandhi in Villeneuve, a place he had visited in 1931. He will also address the University of Bern on the topic 'India Switzerland, new age partnership, connecting Himalayas with Alps'.

He will then head on to Slovenia from September 15 to 17.