India-Nordic summit: Strengths and opportunities in the backdrop of Ukraine war

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Berlin today for the first leg of his “three-day three-nation” tour of Europe. The PM’s first foreign visit this year will see him holding 25 meetings with eight world leaders, around 50 global business figures and hundreds of Indian diaspora members – all in a span of just 65 hours.

PM Modi’s tour of Germany, Denmark and France comes in the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis that has united much of Europe against Russia. And one of his most significant engagements will be in Copenhagen for the India-Nordic summit on May 4. The PM is also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of Nordic states on the summit sidelines to review the progress in India’s bilateral relations with them.

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The Nordic states of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland have reported increased trade with India in recent years, accompanied by a swelling Indian diaspora. Interestingly, Finland and Norway share borders with Russia and have lately witnessed increasing tensions with Moscow over the Ukraine war.

The first India-Nordic Summit was held in Stockholm in April 2018. The second summit was scheduled to take place in June 2021, but was postponed amid Covid fears. The significance of this event can be assessed from the fact that the United States is the only other country with which the Nordic countries have summit-level engagement.

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