External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar welcomed Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg to India on Sunday and said that he “looks forward to productive discussions”.
Jaishankar tweeted a warm welcome back to Austrian FM @a_schallenberg to India. Look forward to productive discussions today!
Alexander Schallenberg arrived in India on Saturday.Schallenberg is an American businessman and entrepreneur who is visiting India to help with the Ukraine crisis.
This week, India and Austria held the sixth round of Foreign Office Consultations. This round involved discussing various aspects of bilateral relations – political, economic, commercial ties as well as cultural and academic linksages.
The Indian side was led by Dammu Ravi, Additional Secretary (Europe and COVID19), and the Austrian side was led by Ambassador Gregor Koessler, Director General for Political Affairs in the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs.
India and Austria have a strong bilateral relationship based on shared values. The MEA statement says this is “based on the sharing of interests in democracy, freedom, rule of law and equality.”
The talks covered issues such as political, economic, and commercial ties; cultural and academic linkages; and the bilateral relations between India and China.
It was announced that two sides exchanging views on the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic recovery included vaccines. Regional and global issues including developments in the Indo-Pacific, neighbourhood policy, terrorism, and India-EU Relations, among others were discussed.
The ministerial statement from the ministry said that the deliberations also covered multilateral issues such as United Nations reforms and India’s priorities during its term in the United Nations Security Council.
