Modi to be first Indian PM to visit Vienna in 41 years: A look at India-Austria ties

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Austria on July 9 and 10 becoming the first Indian leader to travel to the country in 41 years.

PM Modi would first travel to Russia and from there he is expected to depart for Austria.

The last Indian PM to visit Austria

The last Indian prime minister to visit Austria was Indira Gandhi in 1983. She had also visited the country in 1971.

Who was the first Indian PM to visit Austria?

Former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Indian leader to visit Austria in 1955.

In November 1999, the then Indian President KR Narayanan made India’s first state visit to Austria after which in 2011, ex-President Pratibha Patil travelled to the country.

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Modi’s visit to Vienna comes days after he was sworn in as the Prime Minister of India for the third consecutive time and months after both the countries launched ‘India-Austria Startup Bridge’ which was introduced in February this year to foster innovation and entrepreneurship between the two countries.

Ever since becoming the Prime Minister, Modi has maintained cordial ties with Austria. In the first term, the PM held a bilateral meeting with then-Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern in St Petersburg on June 2, 2017, on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

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During his second term as PM, on October 30, 2021, Modi met then Austrian Chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg on the sidelines of COP-26 in Glasgow.

On May 26, 2020, PM Modi also had a telephone conversation with President Alexander Van der Bellen. Both leaders exchanged views on measures taken in their countries to manage the adverse health and economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. They also reiterated their shared desire to further strengthen and diversify India-Austria relations in the post-Covid world.

As PM Modi prepares for his first trip to Vienna, let’s look at the ties between India and Austria.

India-Austria relations

1 - Diplomatic relations between India and Austria were established in 1949.

2 - From November 2023 to November 2024, India and Austria are observing the 75th year of establishment of bilateral relations.

3 - India also contributed to the independence of Austria. Back in 1953, India intervened in favour of Austria in its negotiations with the Soviet Union on the State Treaty of Austria. This resulted in the independence of Austria in 1955.

4 - The Indo-Austrian Joint Economic Commission (JEC) was established in 1983 that provide a forum for bilateral interaction between the governmental

5 - Ministries and Chambers of Commerce and Industry. There have been more than 200 collaborations, including 100 technical collaborations and 60 joint ventures between Indian and Austrian firms especially in the fields of steel, manufacturing technology, railway and transport, equipment and metallurgy.

6 - The bilateral trade between India and Austria is balanced. India exports electronic goods, apparel, textiles, footwear, rubber articles, vehicles and railway parts, electrical machinery and mechanical appliances to Austria, while it imports machinery, mechanical appliances, railway parts, iron and steel.

7 - On February 25, 2013, Austria’s first two satellites TUGSAT-1/BRITE and UniBRITE were launched by India’s PSLV–C20 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.

8 - India and Austria have so far signed more than 20 memorandum of understandings (MoUs) including those on air services; promotion and protection of investments; infrastructure cooperation in railways, health; cooperation in science and technology, agriculture; and technology cooperation in shipping and ports.

Indians in Austria

As per the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), there are an estimated over 31,000 Indians living in Austria, the majority of them from Kerala and Punjab.

The Indian diaspora mainly consists of professionals working primarily in the health care sector and in the multilateral UN bodies, businessmen and self-employed individuals. They are roughly evenly divided between NRIs and PIOs.

Over 500 Indian students are pursuing their higher education in Austria, the MEA said.