Saturday, October 19, 2013

India-Belarus Culture Ministers Meeting

Following is the statement of Union Minister of Culture Smt. Chandresh Kumari Katoch at the bilateral meeting with Mr. Barys, Culture Minister of Belarus at Minsk (Belarus) between India and Belarus:

“Excellency, let me thank you for your warm hospitality and the excellent reception that has been extended to me and members of the Indian delegation during our visit to Minsk.

Our leader late Shri Rajiv Gandhi Ji had visited Minsk in 1985 and his visit was a watershed for India’s engagement with Belarussian people. There have been a number of senior level visits between our two countries including visits by the vice president of India and speaker of the Lok Sabha to Belarus and two presidential visits from Belarus to India.

Excellency, I also note that you have had a long association of over three decades with the field of culture and have contributed immensely to cultural promotion of your country.

I have been told that Belarus is a beautiful country and I am looking forward to my tour tomorrow. The people are warm and kind and have a keen interest in India and its culture. My visit emphasizes the traditionally close relations between our two countries. Together, India and Belarus represent the world’s largest and youngest democracies. Our relations have grown steadily since Belarussian independence in 1992 and there is great potential for forging closer cooperation in many areas.

Indian culture and tradition is liked and practiced by a number of people in Belarus. The embassy of India in Belarus has been encouraging teachings of yoga, Indian classical dances as well as Hindi. India provides four scholarships for learning various aspects of Indian culture to people of Belarus every year - one for Learning Hindi in India is also given by government of India to Belarus every year.

Let me also mention that India has developed a strong tradition of training Indian technical and economic cooperation (ITEC) program which was started in 1993 by the ministry of external affairs under which currently 40 scholarships are provided to Belarussian professionals for training in many areas including proficiency in English language and information technology. Nearly 228 professionals from Belarus have availed of these scholarships. India-Belarus cultural links have remained strong. The signing of the new cultural exchange program for 2014-16 will expand the relationship into new areas of collaboration and cooperation.

The cultural exchange program will strengthen bilateral cultural relations between India and Belarus, this will enable mutual exchange of cultural troops, theater groups and exhibitions from art museums from both countries. Under the aegis of this agreement, institutional collaborations between the national library of Belarus and the national library of Kolkata can be developed.

It also provides for exchange of research, documentation and research publications through national archives, archeological survey of India and national libraries. This exchange of research documentation will enable knowledge transfer in both countries.

The CEP will enable collaboration in international music, dance and folk lore festivals and in Exchanging audio and video materials, photographs, slides, publications in the field of performing arts. It seeks to establish direct links and exchanges between cultural establishment, artistic institutions, artistic unions and artists.

The CEP also provides participation in international film festivals and organization of cinema weeks in both countries. You would be aware that Indian films are very popular in many countries given their quality and artistic brilliance.

Excellency, you have had a long and illustrious career with cinema and video production. It is time to bring back Indian cinema to Belarus on commercial lines. Cooperation in the areas of films and tourism offer immense opportunities to both countries. It is also proposed to hold days of culture in each other’s countries at regular intervals, i.e. once in every two years.

I also envisage mutual exchange of visits of journalists and mass media experts in both countries.

As the first culture minister of India visiting Belarus, it shall be my constant endeavor to promote and develop the cultural engagement between our two countries.

Once again, Excellency, let me thank you for hosting me. I look forward to a cordial and constructive engagement between our two countries. I look forward to hosting you and a senior delegation from Belarus in New Delhi at your earliest convenience.”

No comments:

Post a Comment