Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of the King-dom of Sweden H.E. Stefan Löfven today held a Virtual Summit where they discussed bilateral issues and other regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest.

Prime Minister Modi expressed solidarity with the people of Sweden in the wake of the violent attack on 3rd March and prayed for early recov-ery of the injured.

The Prime Minister fondly recalled his 2018 visit to Sweden for the first India-Nordic Summit, and the India visit of Their Majesties the King and Queen of Sweden in December, 2019.

Both the leaders underlined that the longstanding close relations between India and Sweden were based on shared values of democracy, rule of law, pluralism, equality, freedom of speech, and respect for human rights. They reaffirmed their strong commitment to work for multilateral-ism, rules-based international order, counter terrorism and peace and se-curity. They also acknowledged the growing salience of India’s partnership with the European Union and EU countries.

The two leaders reviewed the extensive ongoing engagement between India and Sweden, and expressed satisfaction at the implementation of the Joint Action Plan and Joint Innovation Partnership agreed during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Sweden in 2018. They explored avenues of further diversifying the themes under the rubric of these partnerships.

Prime Minister Modi welcomed Sweden’s decision to join the International Solar Alliance (ISA). The leaders also noted the growing member-ship of the India-Sweden joint initiative – the Leadership Group on Indus-try Transition (LeadIT) that was launched during the UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019 in New York.

The two leaders also discussed the Covid-19 situation including the vaccination drive and stressed the need for vaccine equity by providing urgent and affordable access to vaccines across all nations.

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DS/AK