Left: PM Modi, Right: Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Vienna on July 9, 2024, where he will be spending two days during which he will call on the president of Austria and hold restricted delegation level talks as well as meet Chancellor Karl Nehammer. Modi’s trip to Austria is historic as it marks the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to the country 41 years after Indira Gandhi.
PM Modi’s decision to include Austria in his first bilateral foreign trip in his third term in office speaks volumes about the importance he places on firming up diplomatic ties with the European nation. During his visit PM Modi said he looks forward to discussing and strengthening the bonds between India and Austria as well as exploring new avenues of cooperation.
PM Modi also said that his visit to Austria a historic occasion as it coincides with 75 years of establishing bilateral diplomatic relations between both the countries. The visit of PM Narendra Modi is expected to give a boost to India-Austria relations. Talking about bilateral ties, the India-Austria Startup Bridge was launched this year in February 2024, with an aim to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing startups in both countries.
Last week, India’s foreign secretary, Vinay Kwatra said that the India-Austria Startup Bridge launched during Austrian Minister of Labour and Economy Martin Kocher’s visit New Delhi, has already had a very promising start. The India-Austria Startup Bridge is a collaborative initiative focused at fostering connections and collaboration between the vibrant startup ecosystem of both countries.
In June, about 20 Indian Startups visited Vienna for a very big event, Foreign Secretary West, Pavan Kapoor informed last week. The aim of the Indian Austria Startup Bridge is to facilitate connections between startups in both countries with investors, partners and mentors, it also aims to promote exchange of knowledge as well as best practises.
This also aims to provide access to new markets to the startups, from both India and Austria as well as encouraging joint ventures and co creation ventures between them. India and Austria have a startup bridge aimed at innovation, especially technological innovation. According to Jajati Mohanty, the CEO of Schiebel India, Austrian companies bring with them a plethora of knowledge related to high precision manufacturing and optimal integration which gets further enhanced through obsolescence managements over its life cycle.
“This knowledge, if leveraged with skills and the growing technological sector in India, would provide rich harvest in advanced engineering products which can be suitably integrated into different industrial applications like space, aerospace, defence and cybersecurity,” he said.
One good example here is that of Canmcopter-100 rotary unmanned aerial vehicle, which is Schiebel Aircraft GmbH is implementing along with the VEM technologies as its production partner and the complete process of licensed production followed by a setting up of the MRO for life cycle management, Jajati Mohanty said.
In an interview with an Indian media agency in February 2024, Kocher said Austria has been increasingly targeting South and Southeast Asian Nations with India topping the list to export its products including machinery chemical and pharmaceutical products, automobile related items. “Austria is focusing on South and Southeast Asian markets in a big way since th8e Russian market has been closed following the war.
India is of special interest to Austria given its complementary in the field of economy. Austria also serves as the gateway to the German speaking markets of Europe; the Austrian minister was quoted as saying. Kocher had highlighted that Austria, one of the richest countries in the European Union is also becoming a popular destination for the Indian film industry to shoot movies as good incentives are being provided.
India and Austrian economic ties have been robust with more than 30-40 large Austrian companies already established in India across various sectors such as infrastructure, tunnelling and tracklaying. Also, both nations have been keen on exploring collaboration in key areas including clean technologies and renewables with Indian businesses looking forward to learn from Austrian expertise in these sectors.
According to the MEA, the bilateral trade between India and Russia has seen a sharp increase in 2023-2024 and has touched close to 65 billion USD, primarily due to strong energy cooperation between the two nations. With Indian and exports of 4 billion USD and Indian imports being close to 60 billion USD, trade remains imbalanced which is matter of priority in discussions with the Russian side.
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