Jaishankar inaugurates new Indian Consulate in Belfast

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar inaugurated the new Consulate General of India in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Friday.In his inaugural address, Jaishankar said that India hope to conclude the free trade agreement with the UK and the European Union soon. "We saw in Belfast a meeting place for our UK policy and our European policy. We could see this had a privileged access to both", Jaishankar added. The EAM noted that when looking around the world, it was very clear that the deepening of the relationship between India and the UK was evident, and highlighted sectors such as the economy, technology, and people-to-people exchanges. "We could see the people of the Indian community also increasing in numbers, so it made great sense that after we came back into government to move very early to set up a consulate, and when we looked at the UK, we also looked a little bit ahead".
The External Affairs Minister highlighted how diaspora welfare has been a priority of the government, and that is what the consulate will advance to do. "We do think that we can use this consulate as a way of pursuing our twin engagements with the UK and Europe as a whole and of course very much in support of this region's aspirations and most of all in the service of our community", he said in his concluding remarks.