Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: For years, Turkey (now Turkiye) has been supporting Pakistan on the defunct Kashmir issue. Despite New Delhi quickly sending humanitarian assistance in February 2023 following a massive earthquake, that claimed thousands of lives, Ankara continued to side with Islamabad on all international forums.
Now, in a tit-for-tat, India has decided to elevate ties with Greece, whose island Cyprus Turkiye claims as its own. The Cyprus crisis started in 1955 because of the conflicting claims of its citizens of both Greek and Turkish origins. In 1974, Turkey even invaded Cyprus and the conflict remains unresolved.
On Friday, Greece decorated visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Grand Cross of the Order of Honour Award which Athens confers on “eminent personalities who by reason of their distinguished position, have contributed to enhancing the stature of Greece.”
PM Modi, who became the first Indian Head of the Government to pay an official visit on Thursday to Greece in 40 years, was warmly greeted by the Indian-origin people after his arrival from Johannesburg. Then PM Indira Gandhi had last visited Greece in September 1983.
On Friday, PM Modi said: “We have decided to boost cooperation in areas of defense and security, infrastructure, education, new and emerging technologies, and agriculture.”
The statement came after the two countries elevated their ties to the level of a “strategic partnership” with PM Modi and his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis resolving to give new momentum to the relationship, especially in areas of defense and security, trade, and emerging technologies.
PM Modi said the two sides also set a target of doubling bilateral trade by 2030 and to firm up a migration and mobility partnership pact soon to facilitate skilled migration between the two countries.
“Prime Minister Mitsotakis and I decided to take the India-Greece relations to the level of strategic partnership,” he said after his talks with his Greek counterpart.
PM Modi said the two countries agreed that there should be an institutional dialogue framework between India and Greece at the level of national security advisors. The two sides also focused on enhancing cooperation to combat terrorism.
In the area of defense and security, they agreed on strengthening defense-industrial cooperation apart from military ties, he said.
Referring to the Ukraine crisis, Modi said India and Greece support diplomacy and dialogue to resolve it.
He also thanked the people of Greece and President Katerina N Sakellaropoulou for awarding him with the Grand Cross of the Order of Honour award.
Greek PM Mitsotakis said the two sides are ready to move forward to deal with various challenges, “especially in a period of upheaval and war in Ukraine.”
In recent years “our relations have greatly improved and there is scope for a very wide range of bilateral cooperation in the fields of economy, defense, culture, and tourism,” he said.
“Our first objective is to double our bilateral trade,” he added.