President of India's Statement on Her Way Back to New Delhi After Completing Her State Visits to Spain and Poland

The following is the text of the Statement of the President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, on board her special aircraft after completing her State Visits to Spain and Poland from April 20 to April 27, 2009.

"We are returning to India at the conclusion of my State Visits to Spain and Poland. We have traveled together and you will agree that our journey has been very meaningful and productive.

I said to you when we left New Delhi at the beginning of this journey that my visit to these two countries was intended to consolidate our rapidly developing relations with Europe and the European Union. These are countries with whom we face common challenges and a common determination to strengthen the forces of peace, security and development. It was our intention to focus on this occasion on countries like Spain and Poland which we believe are not only important countries in Europe but also those which hold great opportunity for the further development of friendship and cooperation across the board.

I am particularly happy that our objectives have been fulfilled. We found, both in Spain and Poland, a common resonance and desire to more effectively and meaningfully cooperate in matters pertaining to trade, investment, development of infrastructure, renewable energy, energy, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, the auto sector, defence, tourism, IT, culture and education.

I also had a detailed exchange of views with the leadership both in Spain and Poland on the situation in our respective regions and agreed to strengthen our already useful cooperation in multilateral organizations, especially the United Nations. The global financial crisis was another factor that brought home to all of us that this is the right opportunity for us to leverage each others' complementarities and synergies.

The composite team of businessmen that accompanied me, I understand, had useful and productive discussions with their counterparts in Spain and Poland that are expected to lead to concrete business. What is particularly important is that in both countries, the governments have promised to lend strong support to the further development of the trade and economic partnerships. In my discussions, I stressed the need to ensure that our business people, tourists and other visitors do not face avoidable hurdles for entry into Spain and Poland.

I am happy that in both Madrid and Warsaw, I was assured that these two countries stand firmly with India in our long-standing fight against terrorism. Both countries strongly condemned the Mumbai terrorist attacks of last November and have shown solidarity in our time of need. I expect that our cooperation with them on this issue will strengthen in the months ahead.

I am also pleased that we have received support from both the countries I have visited for strengthening the India-EU strategic partnership. We attach importance to our relations with the European Union which represents, among other things, growing space for democracy in the world.

In both Madrid and Warsaw I was delighted to meet with the members of the Indian community. Our Diaspora represents an important and growing asset which we respect.

I had the pleasure of extending invitations to their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain, the President of Poland and the Prime Ministers of Spain and Poland to visit India. These invitations have been accepted and mutually convenient dates will be agreed for their visits to India after the new government has assumed office. These visits will enable us to sustain the focus on further development of relations with these two important European countries.

I return home fully satisfied. I also now have a much better impression and understanding of the cultural dimension of our relations with Spain and Poland; a dimension which needs to be further developed.

I would also like to thank all of you, members of the Indian media for being good traveling companions. I hope you enjoyed the visit as much as I did."