The group has also backed India’s call for a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Amid New Delhi’s deepening ties with the European Union, India and the four Visegrad Group (V4) countries — Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic — have agreed to deepen cooperation in political, economic, technological, and defence and people-to-people ties, according to Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.
“It was a very, very productive meeting.
“It was, in a sense, a new historic occasion,” Jaishankar said in remarks after the meeting, where he was joined by Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Radek Sikorski, Hungary’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Anita Orban, Slovak Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Juraj Blanar, and Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka. What we agreed was that since India’s relationship with the European Union itself is deepening, with the V4 we would take some special initiatives to create an annual business forum,” he said, adding that there was “consensus” that the foreign ministers of the five nations in the group would meet annually. Jaishankar said the group, along with India, would also work together in the fields of technology and innovation, space, connectivity, and people-to-people mobility. He stressed that India has “very good” relations with the V4 countries.
The meeting was “very worthwhile” and “very productive”, with discussions focusing on cooperation as well as major global crises, including the Ukraine conflict and developments in the Gulf, according to the minister. Slovakia’s Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar, who convened the meeting, called India an “upcoming superpower” and said on behalf of the group that they supported India getting a permanent seat at the UN.
