India, Slovenia sign three agreements

New Delhi, June 14 (ANI): India and Slovenia on Tuesday signed three agreements including one on cooperation in the field of education and research.

The two nations entered into an agreement on the mutual promotion and protection of investments, which was signed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Slovenian Minister of Economy Darja Radic.

A Memorandum of Understanding was also signed between the Bureau of Indian Standards and Slovenian Institute for Standardization. The MoU was signed by Bureau of Indian Standards Director General Sharad Gupta and Bogdan Topic, President, Slovenian Institute of Standardization.

A Memorandum of Understanding was also signed between Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India and University of Nova Gorica, Nova Gorica, Slovenia for cooperationn the field of research and education. Prof. Govindan Rangarajan, Chairman, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and Dr. Danilo Zavrtanik Rector, University of Novaorica, Nova Gorica, signed the MoU.

Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor, who is on four-day visit to India, earlier today said that he is looking forward to a strong political and business ties with India.

"I came here from Slovenia to find and talk with a friend who would like to deepen the political friendship between Slovenia and India. We find in India a great friend whom we can talk to on all possible challenges and issues of present and future for this and next generations. I am looking forward to serious, strong, rich friendship," he said

Noting it is the first ever visit by any Slovenian Prime Minister to India, Pahor said he is seeking some business ties with New Delhi.

"The second reason is to boost the economic relations between Slovenia and India. Slovenia is a member of the European Union. It is a member of Euro Zone. It is going out of recession and is on the right path to recovery. I will do my best with my government to push the good forums that make our economy competitive and to make our economy interesting for investments from India to Europe, particularly Slovenia," said Paror.

"We would like to make some investments also here in your country, so I am looking to be here. This is a very first state visit by Slovenian Prime Minister to this beautiful country, incredible India," he added.

The visiting Slovenian Prime Minister is leading a high-power delegation including the Minister of Economy, Minister of Health, Minister of Transport, State Secretary for Higher Education, and a large number of senior officials as well as businessmen.

The bilateral trade between India and Slovenia in the last five years has quadrupled to 245 million euros and India looks forward to access central and southeast European markets through the European nation. (ANI)