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Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Dublin on Wednesday for his maiden day-long visit to Ireland enroute to the US. He is scheduled for a “tete-a-tete” with Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny at the Government Buildings in Dublin City Centre followed by a working luncheon hosted by Kenny in honour of Modi, the first Indian Premier to visit the country in almost 60 years. “We hope to further develop strong people-to-people and economic ties with Ireland in the years to come,” Modi had said in a Facebook post in reference to the visit. Relations between India and Ireland date back to independence and in 2013, the total trade in goods and services was pegged at €2.48 billion. The key items of Irish export include computer hardware and software, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, food and machinery. Indian exports to Ireland cover textiles, garments and clothing accessories, pharmaceuticals, light engineering goods and chemicals. Major Indian companies with a presence in Ireland include pharma majors like Wockhardt, Sun Pharma and Reliance Genemedix and information technology firms like FirstSource, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HCL and Wipro. [caption id=“attachment_2443652” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi being presented with a jersey by his Irish counterpart Enda Kenny at a meeting in Dublin on Wednesday. PTI[/caption] Following the government-level interactions, the Prime Minister will interact with the Indian community in Ireland at a special event being hosted at Hotel Double Tree Hilton in Dublin. Ireland is home to around 26,000 persons of Indian origin, of which around 17,000 are Indian citizens. The bulk of the community is in the healthcare sector, working as doctors and nurses, with information technology and engineering among some of the other sectors. The country is also fast emerging as a significant destination for Indian students seeking higher education, particularly in post-graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral courses in these particular fields. “This is a very historic visit and there are lots of expectations from Mr Modi. We are confident the PM is the right person to trust to increase foreign investments for India,” said Lalubhai Parekh, president of the Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP). From Dublin, Modi sets off for New York this evening to address a UN Sustainable Development Summit and participate in a summit on peacekeeping being hosted by US President Barack Obama. He then travels on to the West Coast of the US, where he will address the Indian community in the Silicon Valley and hold meetings with top tech CEOs as part of this two-nation, three-city tour which concludes on September 29. The last Indian prime minister to visit Ireland was Jawaharlal Nehru in 1956. There was considerable optimism in the Irish media over Modi’s visit, going by the coverage in all the leading dailies. “India presents an opportunity to boost our exports to the faster growing parts of the world - but requires the same level of focus and dedication which Ireland has invested in other trading partners,” said the ‘Irish Independent’ in a comment piece titled ‘There are 1.27 billion reasons why Indian visit is crucial to Ireland’. “The visit is one of major importance and offers an extensive opportunity for Ireland to reposition itself with one of the largest and fastest growing economies globally,” echoed the ‘Irish Examiner’. “Irish officials see Modi’s visit - only his third to Europe, after visits last year to France and Germany - as a rare opportunity to raise Ireland’s profile in the world’s most populous democracy, where Ireland is relatively unknown,” added the ‘Irish Times’.
Live: Ireland visit is short but it's historic, says PM Narendra Modi in Dublin
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Dublin on Wednesday for his maiden day-long visit to Ireland enroute to the US.
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Modi will stay at Waldorf Astoria in New York
According to CNN IBN, in New York PM Modi will be put up at the Waldorf Astoria. According to the channel, the Prime Minister will be on the 35th floor of the luxury hotel.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama will also break the traditional norm of staying at Waldorf Astoria in New York and instead, he will stay at the New York Palace Hotel when he will arrive to attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting, The White House confirmed on Sunday.
Modi’s upcoming stay at Waldorf Astoria is generating too much media attention as the same hotel was rejected by Obama on the fears of spying or bugging. Waldorf Astoria was earlier owned by Hilton Worldwide Holdings but it was purchased by a Chinese insurance firm, Anbang Insurance company in 2014.
Narendra Modi ends his address and promises Ireland that it won’t take another 60 years for an Indian Prime Minister to visit the nation. Last Indian PM to visit Ireland was Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
Entire world is talking about India’s development. 21st century is Asia’s century and the world has accepted it.
“I had detailed discussions with your PM. We spoke about so many issues. Ireland and India have a common colonial history. In 2016, Ireland will be celebrating its freedom struggle and I would like that India is also part of these celebrations,” says PM Modi.
The Prime Minister added that there are a lot of common things between the two nations. “Our values are very similar and these things make for a strong bond between the two nations. These Irish children just sang a Sanskrit song and they did not just learn the words, they had internalise the words. If we had tried the same thing in India, it would have questioned secularism,” Modi told the gathering.
Namashkar, says Narendra Modi to the Indian community in Dublin
“I want to apologise first of all, I should have given more time to you and it would have been better if I had a little more time in my hand. But this is an auspicious visit,” says Modi to a cheering crowd in Dublin.
PM Modi arrives to address the Indian diaspora
No selfies please
“Guys, the PM will be with us shortly. Please be disciplined and due to the shortage of time, selfies will not be allowed,” the compere announced to a hall full of Indians in Dublin.
The enthusiasm among the Indian crowd in Dublin was noticeable as the crowd cheered and raised slogans for Narendra Modi. Soon after the address, Modi will leave for New York.
PM Narendra Modi’s address to the Indian diaspora in Dublin will begin shortly, ANI reports.
According to CNN-IBN, the turnout is huge for the address. Despite having a huge auditorium, many were seen standing. The enthusiasm among the crowd was palpable, IBNLive report said.
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Modi to address the Indian community soon
According to reports, PM Narendra Modi will shortly adddress the Indian community in Dublin. If the previous foreign visits are any indication, we can expect a throbbing crowd waiting for the PM’s address.
“India and Ireland must seek much closer partnership and cooperation. I also hope that Ireland’s visa policy will be sensitive to India’s IT firms. We will soon have direct air services by airlines of both countries. We are pleased that our bilateral trade & investment ties are growing, despite global and regional uncertainties. India and Ireland are ideally placed to form productive partnerships to take advantage of the opportunities in the digital age. We exchanged views on broad range of global challenges including terror, radicalisation, and the situation in Europe and Asia. I sought Ireland’s support for reforms of the UNSC within a fixed time frame and India’s permanent membership of it,” says PM Modi in Dublin.
“Short this visit maybe, but it is historic,” says PM Modi as he begins his joint statement in Dublin. “It has taken 59 years for an Indian PM to visit Ireland. Irish exports gave us institutions like geology survey and first linguistic survey of India. From the friendship between Rabindranath Tagore and WB Yeats, India and Ireland have strong relations,” said the PM.
India-Ireland joint statement begins
“Links between our two (India-Ireland) countries are deep and go back a long time-Irish,” said PM Enda Kenny. “We see a lot of opportunities for Irish skills and IT tech to work with India. We discussed about reforms in UN security council as well.
Earlier, the Irish Prime Minister, apart from the jersey of Ireland’s cricket team, also gave PM Modi a sliotar and a hurley. Hurling is popular in Ireland, tweeted PMO.
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Modi presented a specially handcrafted piece of silver marble and roughly hewn sandstone rock to his Irish counterpart.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi presents selected manuscripts and papers connected with Irish officials, Mr. Thomas Oldham & Sir George Abraham Grierson, recognising their contribution to India.
Sir George A Grierson conducted the 1st linguistic survey of India, which was published over several years between 1903 to 1928. Oldham ‘conducted first systemic coal mapping of India and later initiated mapping of other minerals. He wrote a lot about fossils in India.’
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