Gen.V.K.Singh (Retd.), Minister of State for External Affairs will visit Ireland from 22 to 24 June 2015

22nd June 2015

The Minister will also be speaking about the initiatives taken by the Government of India to attract investments and new opportunities that these policies have presented to further business with India.

On the 23rd June, the Minister will attend the 30th Anniversary commemoration ceremony of Air India Boeing 747 `Kanishka’ crash in the village of Ahakista and will place a wreath on behalf of the Government of India and the people of India at the Ahakista Memorial. He will also meet the family members and relatives of those who perished in the crash. Mr.Charlie Flanagan, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland will represent the Irish Government. A delegation from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, India and Air India will participate in the Memorial Ceremony.

Thereafter, the Minister will meet with Mr.Charlie Flanagan, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland. During this meeting, the two sides are expected to exchange views on a wide range of issues, state of bilateral relations and global issues of mutual concern.

The same day, Gen.Singh (Retd.) will visit Sligo, the birthplace of W.B.Yeats to attend a ceremony of unveiling of the bust of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore in Wine Street, Sligo. From the Irish side, the ceremony will be attended by Minister of Justice and Equality, Frances Fitzgerald. The bust is a gift from the people of India to the people of Sligo and has been transported all the way from Kolkatta, the birth place of Tagore by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations and sculpted by Gautam Pal. The event is one of the many strands of India-Ireland Association over the 19th and 20th century, an association whose intensity and diversity defied the geographical distance between our two countries and our relative sizes.

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