Ambassador of India, Smt. Narinder Chauhan participated in the joint committee meeting under Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation between India and Serbia that was held today through video conferencing. The meeting was co-chaired on the Indian side by Dr. Arabinda Mitra, Adviser & Head, International Cooperation, Department of Science & Technology and Prof. Dr. Viktor Nedovic, Assistant Minister, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia. Both sides agreed to take forward the cooperation under bilateral agreement and discussed possible areas of cooperation, modalities and resources to take forward the cooperation.

The following areas were identified as possible sectors for cooperation (i) Biotechnology, (ii) New materials  and nano-tech sciences, (iii) Energy and Energy efficiency, (iv) Agriculture & Food, (v) Information and Communication Technologies. It was agreed to hold Joint Workshops for better networking and connectivity. Serbian side proposed to host the first Workshop during the first half of 2017 in Serbia. Both sides also agreed to finalize Programme of Cooperation with mutual consultations. Ambassador, Smt Narinder Chauhan reiterated India’s invitation to Serbia to join the International Solar Alliance as a ‘Partner Country’ in view of favourable climatic and other conditions for prospective and successful solar energy development. Serbian side offered to share Action Plan for the Strategy of Scientific and Technological Development of Serbia-2016-2020 which is likely to be finalized by the end of the current financial year.

Science & Technology has a great potential for cooperation between India and Serbia and implementation of Programme of Cooperation (POC) under the S&T agreement would lead to a much higher level of cooperation between the two countries.  The said video conference was at the initiative of Embassy of India, Belgrade.

Place: Belgrade
Date: December 06, 2016