Paramaribo Foreign Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said India sees Suriname’s growth potential and assured the South American country that New Delhi will be a “fellow traveler and partner” in its development journey.
Jaishankar said at a press interaction after the joint committee meeting that India and Suriname are advancing cooperation in multiple areas, including trade, tourism, digital capabilities and artificial intelligence.
He said the meeting set “more ambitious goals” for bilateral relations.
The minister will be on a three-country tour of the Caribbean from May 2-10. He arrived in Suriname on Wednesday.
Talking about India-backed development projects, he highlighted the recently completed passion fruit processing unit and the Early Warning Service Delivery Project for flood management in remote areas.
The minister said that the trade volume between India and Latin America and the Caribbean is currently around US$40-45 billion per annum.
In terms of capacity building and technological cooperation, he said that as countries enter the “artificial intelligence era”, India is willing to share its experience in digital practices and capabilities.
“Your government participated in a ministerial capacity at the recent AI Impact Summit, where discussions were held on how we can adapt and deploy AI to our specific circumstances,” he said.
“Suriname is moving forward, we see your potential for growth, we see the road ahead of you and our minister wants to reassure you that you are your traveling companion and your partner in this journey,” he said.
Jaishankar described India and Suriname as “two countries with a shared history and a shared commitment to the global South” and said the two countries work closely together at the United Nations and multilateral institutions.
This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.
