A Nordic-India connect to power a green transition

Source– The post is based on the article “A Nordic-India connect to power a green transition” published in The Hindu on 8th February 2023.

Syllabus: GS3- Bilateral, Regional groupings and agreement affecting India interests

Relevance– Relations between India and Nordic countries

News– Trade Ministers of Norway and Finland are currently visiting India together.

What is the importance of the Nordic region?

Over the last decades, Nordic countries have been at the forefront of developing new green technologies and solutions such as hydrogen, offshore wind, and carbon capture and storage.

The Nordics have succeeded in building stable, secure, welfare based societies to a large extent.

The Nordic region has ambitions to become the most sustainable and integrated region in the world by 2030.

What is the current status of relations between India and Nordic countries?

The Nordic ­India Summit was held in Copenhagen in May 2022. The five Nordic leaders and Indian Prime Minister agreed to intensify cooperation on digitalisation, renewable energy, maritime industries, and the circular economy.

PM of India expressed an interest in joint Nordic solutions that can support India’s green transition.

The Nordic business community in India is also growing. There are now 240 Norwegian and Finnish companies in India.

India and Finland– The past year has seen a significant rise in trade and investments between Finland and India.

India has grown to become a priority country for Finland. Finland has recently opened a new Consulate General in Mumbai.

Several Indian companies are looking towards Finland for its expertise in areas of technology and innovation, sustainability, digitalisation, carbon neutrality and more.

An increasing number of Indian students, researchers, and experts have been moving to Finland as well. Finnish companies such as Nokia and Fortum have some of their most significant investments in India.

India and Norway– Trade between Norway and India has doubled in the last three years. The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund is likely to become one of India’s largest single foreign investors with around $17.6 Billion investment.

The Norwegian government has also recently established a new Climate Investment Fund for investments in renewables abroad, and India has been defined as a focus country. Almost ₹1,500 crore have been invested so far in India through the climate investment fund.

What is the scope for future collaborations between India and Nordic countries?

Both Norway and Finland have ongoing free trade agreement and investments negotiations

with India. Finland, is a part of the EU­ India FTA negotiations, and Norway is negotiating through the European Free Trade Association.

Finalising the free trade and investments agreements should be a priority.

There is a great deal of complementarities in our trade relations. In addition, trade in services is an area of significant potential, especially with tourism, education, IT, energy, maritime and financial services.

Together, the Nordics and India can power the green transition the world needs.