Statement to the Press by President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil

I am very pleased to be in this historic city of Warsaw among the friendly people of the Republic of Poland. Yesterday on my arrival, my first engagement was a visit to the Warsaw Uprising Museum, where I paid tributes to the patriotism and bravery of the Polish people. There has been a longstanding tradition of regular contacts at the highest political level between our two countries. My visit is a part of this tradition and seeks to boost relations. We also look forward to receiving His Excellency President Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk in India on mutually convenient dates.

I wish to convey my sincere thanks to President the Government and people of Poland for the hearty welcome accorded to me and my delegation, reflecting the longstanding and abiding friendship between our two countries.

We have just concluded discussions with the President and his colleagues over the whole gamut of our expanding partnership. We agreed to cooperate in areas of Information Technology, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, tourism and the ongoing areas of defence, mining, education and culture among others.

While we took note of the healthy growth in our bilateral trade despite the current global economic downturn, we agreed that it is well under its full potential. Both sides have, therefore, agreed to look at ways of enhancing bilateral investments, trade and economic cooperation.

We have signed two agreements dealing with Tourism and Health and Medicine, which will open new areas of cooperation in these sectors. They also provide a sound framework for expanding people-to-people level contacts between our two countries.

I am happy to inform you that a business and industry delegation is accompanying me and parallel meetings are taking place to explore new avenues of trade and investments between our two countries. I will be addressing the business meet over lunch this afternoon.

I specifically note the interest of the Indo-Polish Parliamentary Group in promoting parliamentary exchanges. We fully reciprocate this and it will be our effort to further strengthen Parliamentary exchanges once our new Parliament is constituted after our General Elections conclude in May this year.

The India-Poland partnership has been built on mutual respect and our two countries have strong foundations of democracy and enterprise. We appreciate Poland's achievements in recent years, especially after it joined the European Union. India has also enjoyed a sustained partnership with the EU over several decades, that was upgraded to strategic level in 2004.

India and Poland cooperate closely in the United Nations and other international fora. We both take part in UN peace missions and collaborate on issues of international concern like climate change and global warming, negotiations in WTO and fight against terrorism.

I expressed to the President my Government's gratitude to Poland for its support for the India-specific waiver at the NSG negotiations in September last year. Mr. President, this would help India harness civil nuclear technology for meeting the mounting energy demand for its development process.

We renewed our commitment and determination to fight terrorism. India is involved in the reconstruction process in Afghanistan and both our countries have had to suffer loss of lives at the hands of the Taliban and Al Qaida. India has been a victim of ongoing terrorist attacks for more than two decades from across the border. The Mumbai terror attacks last November were a horrific example of such wanton acts of terrorism. I wish to thank Poland for its message of condolences and support. I would also like to take this opportunity to condole the gruesome murder of a Polish engineer by the Taliban in Pakistan in February 2009.

I have invited His Excellency President Lech Kaczynski and Mrs. Maria Kaczynska to visit India at a mutually convenient date. We are also looking forward to the visit of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

My delegation and I will be visiting Krakow, the cultural capital of Poland, tomorrow and we return to India the following day.

I once again express my gratitude for the wonderful hospitality extended to us and would like to take this opportunity to convey greetings and best wishes from the people of India to the people of Poland.

Thank You.