By Sahil Pandey
Warsaw [Poland], August 20 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Poland will be exciting as well as important and will boost the bilateral relationship, said Indian ambassador to Poland, Nagma M Mallick on Tuesday.
Mallick said that since this is the first visit to Poland by an Indian Prime Minister in 45 years, the visit is important.
Talking about the visit, Mallick told ANI, "It's a very exciting visit and an important one, symbolically as well as practically. You've seen excitement building up and the coverage already in the Polish media. It's the top story. It's on the front pages everywhere. And this excitement is there thanks to Prime Minister Modi's international stature, his profile, and the excitement that Prime Minister Modi has chosen to come to Poland and to break this nearly half a century gap, at a time when this is the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister. And so I think this visit has all of this excitement that is already building up."
She said that Poland is an important country in Central Europe, it is a significant member of the European Union. India has politically close ties with Poland, as well as economically important and growing relations with Poland.
"We have a very good and growing bilateral trade turnover of about USD 6 billion, and the balance of trade is very much in India's favour, we have good Indian investments here of around USD 3 billion and Polish investors have also invested in India of just under a billion dollars," the Indian ambassador said.
Touching upon the cultural connect between the two countries, Mallick said, "Another important element of the Poland-India relationship is the openness of Polish people to our cultural and spiritual ethos; Sanskrit studies and the study of Indology, which is the study of the Sanskrit texts of ancient India."
Further talking about people-to-people connect, Indian envoy Mallick highlighted story of the Dubri Maharaja, the good Maharaja and the Jam Sahab of Navanagar.
The Ambassador also revealed that during the visit PM Modi will visit the Good Maharaja square, which was named after the Maharaja Jam Sri Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji,
During the World War II, over 5,000 people from Poland, including children, were hosted by the Principality of Kolhapur and Memorial Battle of Monte Casino. PM Modi will also address a community event for the diaspora.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Poland.
Diplomatic relations between India and Poland were established in 1954, leading to the opening of the Indian Embassy in Warsaw in 1957 and Polish Embassy in in New Delhi in 1954.
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