A very, very warm welcome to India.
2. I know this is your first visit to India as Foreign Minister, I hope there will be many more; and I certainly assure you this will be a very productive visit. I understand that you have just met the Vice President. I'm sure that meeting went very well.
3. But I'm really today very glad to have the opportunity to take forward our special strategic partnership. This is also the 50th anniversary of the establishment of our diplomatic relations. And you come at a very good time, because our trade is very good, our political relations are very cooperative. I know tomorrow you're visiting the Hyundai plant in Chennai.
4. So that itself, Hyundai in many ways is a symbol of the relationship that we have. We have also expanded our relationship today to cover the economic development cooperation fund; we are doing projects under that. And we've recently had a very large delegation of Korean Buddhists who actually walked 1200 kilometers. I mean it was an amazing thing which they did for 45 days.
5. So you know, whether it's people to people, it's economic, it's political; there are a lot of strategic issues, which I want to discuss. So once again, it's so timely that you have come here and I welcome you very warmly.
New Delhi
April 07, 2023