India, Poland vow to boost economic ties

POLAND: The presidents of Poland and India vowed here Friday to boost bilateral trade between the two nations, which totaled 1.3 billon dollars (982 million euros) last year.

“There is a chance for significant expansion in trade exchange and we fully support it,” Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski told reporters at a joint press conference in Warsaw with Indian counterpart Pratibha Patil, who echoed him.

Mechanical and military equipment as well as chemical and pharmaceutical products figure high on the list of Polish exports to India, while India exports textiles, tea and spices to Poland. Patil formally invited both Kaczynski and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, with whom she also met, to visit India.

The two presidents also signed bilateral agreements on tourism and health.

“We are pleased by the consolidation of relations between India and the European Union,” Kaczynski said. Prior to her arrival in Poland, the Indian president visited Spain also with a view to boosting trade. Patil met with Polish and Indian business leaders on Friday and was due to travel to the picturesque southern Polish city of Krakow Saturday.

On Sunday she is expected to visit the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps in Oswiecim, southern Poland, now a museum and memorial site to the victims of genocide. More than a million people, mostly European Jews, were systematically killed at the site to the west of Krakow by Nazi Germany during World War II.

Patil is also scheduled to visit the unique Wieliczka Salt Mine, also near Krakow, before ending her visit Sunday. Dating from the 13th century, the mine produced table salt up to 2007 and is famous for its sculptures and vast chambers — including a “cathedral” — chiseled out of salt walls over the centuries.

Her trip coincides with general elections in India, which started last week and are due to conclude on May 16.

Warsaw, Sunday, AFP