New Delhi: India and Greece are looking at expanding bilateral ties on the cultural and educational front, Ioannis Chryssoulakis, secretary general for Greeks abroad and public diplomacy, Greece’s ministry of foreign affairs, told ThePrint Tuesday.
“Indo-Greek relations are based on shared culture and history. Greece sees India as the next emerging power and we have been working on increasing cooperation on the economic, cultural and educational fronts,” said the senior Greek official.
Chryssoulakis was speaking on the sidelines of a conference at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Titled The Greek World and India: History, Culture and Trade from the Hellenistic Period to Modern Times, the ongoing conference, to conclude Friday, will see 40 scholars from both countries present findings on the shared history, culture and literature.
“Greek citizens have great respect for Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), since he was one of the most notable proponents of democracy, a Greek theory,” said Chryssoulakis.
Talking about his meeting with Meenakshi Lekhi Monday, minister of state (MoS), Ministry of External Affairs and Culture, the Greek secretary general said the discussion had focussed on ways to expand cultural ties between India and Greece.
“A student exchange programme is in the works for students of theatre institutes in the two countries. In addition to this, two music composers from both countries will be selected, who will collaborate and create an album which will be promoted by the two countries,” said Chryssoulakis.
India and Greece are looking to increase bilateral ties with India’s Minister for External Affairs S. Jaishankar visiting Athens in 2021 and his counterpart, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias coming to New Delhi this year.
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Building Indo-Greek ties
Elaborating further on the cultural exchanges planned between the two countries, Chryssoulakis said Indian students, particularly those from JNU and Jharkhand Rai University (JRU) will be given priority for scholarships under a ‘Study in Greece’ programme.
While JNU has a chair of Greek Studies, called the “Dimitrios Galanos Chair” and a Greek language department in its School of Languages, Chryssoulakis has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the JRU and the university also awarded him an honorary doctorate.
In a bid to attract foreign students, Chryssoulakis said Greek universities have started courses taught in English.
While there are as yet no direct flights connecting India and Greece, Greek Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis had said in October last year that a direct flight between Athens and India will be started, in view of the large number of middle-class Indians who travel to Greece for leisure.
Speaking on this, Chryssoulakis said, “Our governments are in the works of setting up a flight that directly connects the countries. The process was delayed due to the pandemic.”
He added that in a bid to expand economic ties between the two countries, the Greek deputy minister for economic diplomacy and openness, Konstantinos Fragkogiannis, is scheduled to lead a large trade and business delegation to India in early 2023.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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