Swedish Royal couple to arrive in India on Monday

Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia will meet President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, besides attending the High-Level Policy Dialogue on Innovation Policy.

New Delhi: With an aim to promote bilateral cooperation within the framework of Joint Action Plan, Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia will arrive in India on a five-day-long state visit on Monday morning, ministry of external affairs (MEA) said on Sunday.

According to MEA, the royal couple is slated to arrive at the Indira Gandhi International Airport at around 6.55 am.

On Monday, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia will meet President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, besides attending the High-Level Policy Dialogue on Innovation Policy.

The couple is slated to take part in a programme on 'Tackling emissions and air pollution' at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi.

On Wednesday, the dignitaries will emplane for Mumbai and meet the Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhawan and will emplane for Dehradun the next day to visit Ram Jhula Bridge and Bathing Ghat in Uttarakhand.

Moreover, they will inaugurate the Sarai Sewage Treatment Plant in Haridwar the same day. Concluding their visit, the couple will emplane for New Delhi on Friday and thereafter will leave for Stockholm.

This will be King Gustaf's third visit to India. As per the MEA, several documents on furthering bilateral engagement are likely to be signed during the visit.

India and Sweden had a bilateral trade turnover of USD 3.37 billion in 2018 and cumulative investments of about USD 2.5 billion since 2000.

Bilateral relations between India and Sweden are friendly and based on principles of democracy and transparency, right to freedom, and rule of law. Regular interactions in political, business, scientific and academic spheres have provided dynamism to the bilateral ties of the two countries.