New Delhi: India and Greece are looking at elevating their bilateral ties to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s planned visit to the European country next week, people familiar with the matter said Friday.
It will be the first visit to Greece by an Indian prime minister in four decades.
There is no official announcement yet on Modi’s visit to Greece.
The people cited above said Modi will travel to Athens August 25 after concluding his visit to Johannesburg. He will hold wide-ranging talks with Prime Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Modi is visiting Johannesburg from August 22 to 24 to attend the annual summit of BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa).
It is learnt that he is also likely to visit Indonesian capital Jakarta next month to attend the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and East Asia summits which are scheduled to take place between September 5 and 7.
Both India and Greece are working to upgrade the bilateral relations to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership in the talks between Modi and Mitsotakis, the sources said.
Both sides are keen to expand cooperation in areas of trade, investment, defence and people-to-people exchanges.
Modi’s planned visit to Athens assumed significance as it would be the first prime ministerial visit from India since then prime minister Indira Gandhi visited Greece in September 1983.
Then Greek prime minister Andreas Papandreou visited India thrice — in November 1984 for Indira Gandhi’s funeral, in January 1985 to attend a summit on nuclear disarmament and in January 1986 on a bilateral state visit as the Chief Guest for the Republic Day function.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Greece in June. During the visit, both sides explored ways to expand overall bilateral ties and called for following fundamental international principles of rule of law and respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity.
They also denounced radicalisation, violent extremism and terrorism, in a clear signal of their growing convergence on key geopolitical challenges.
Jaishankar’s visit to Athens was the first by an Indian foreign minister to the European country in 18 years.
Greece sees India to be a good potential economic and commercial partner.
PTI