Iceland's Foreign Minister and India's Minister of State for External Affairs & Culture

Cooperation in the fields of geothermal energy, fisheries, culture, equality, innovation, and trade was among the things that Foreign Minister Þórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir and Smt.Meenakashi Lekhi, Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture of India, discussed at their meeting in Reykjavik.

India and Iceland are celebrating half a century of political relations this year, and Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture of  India Smt. Meenakashi Lekhi was in Iceland with a delegation for the occasion.

"Our meeting with India's Minister was both useful and enjoyable, and I was particularly pleased to hear her express her satisfaction with the cooperation with the GRÓ schools and how experts from India have benefitted from what they have learned here," says Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir. 

GRÓ is an International Centre for Capacity Development, Sustainability and Societal Change. Four training programs, that have been an important part of Iceland‘s development cooperation portfolio for many decades, operate under GRÓ. These are the Geothermal Training Programme (GTP), the Fisheries Training Programme (FTP), the Land Restoration Training Programme (LRT) and the Gender Studies and Training Programme (GEST).

A special project group on cooperation between India and Iceland on the use of geothermal energy was established earlier this year. Geothermal energy is found in many parts of India, especially in the northern part of the country. Two geothermal projects are in progress in which Icelandic parties are involved, one in the field of electricity production and the other in the utilization of geothermal heat for cold storage.

"The possibilities for closer cooperation with India are numerous, especially in the field of geothermal energy, fishing, and innovation," says Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir. "As far as we can tell, the opportunities inherent in increased cooperation with this second most populous nation on earth are extremely great, and we should make the most of them."

The ministers also discussed the state of world affairs and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir emphasized respect for international law and the importance of consensus to protect the values on which democracies are based.