India, Iceland sign agreements

India and Iceland signed agreements yesterday to enhance cooperation in the field of sustained fisheries development and organise cultural exchange programme between 2019 and 2022.

Iceland also declared exemption from Visa for Indian diplomatic and official passport holders. The agreements and MoUs were signed in the presence of President Ram Nath Kovind and his Iceland counterpart Gudni Johannesson in Reykjavik in Iceland.

In his statement, President Kovind invited Mr Johannesson to India.  

He also invited Iceland to be part of the international solar alliance led by India to promote solar energy worldwide. He expressed happiness over the commencement of India supported Hindi Chair at the University of Iceland



and hoped that the teaching of Hindi language will begin soon.

Later in the day, President gave a lecture on the topic India-Iceland for a greener Planet in the University of Iceland. Listing out the initiatives taken by India to mitigate climate change, the President informed that India´s greenhouse gas emission intensity of its GDP will be reduced by 33 to 35 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

It will create additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030. He added that the country has set a target of installing 175 Gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2022 and turn towards utilisation of geothermal energy.