Confident of India's G20 Presidency, says Netherlands Foreign Ministry Secretary-General

By Ayushi Agarwal

New Delhi [India], December 20 (ANI): Expressing confidence in India's G20 Presidency, Paul Huijts, Netherlands Foreign Ministry Secretary-General said that India's Presidency will be great and that the western European country can discuss ways to help New Delhi during its tenure.

"We are full of confidence that this will be a great presidency so we congratulate our Indian colleagues on getting the Presidency seat this month and we were invited by India to be the guest at the G20 like we were in the last few years. We are very excited about that and we discussed with our partners what way we can be helpful to get a real meaning for G20 discussion on many different topics," he told ANI.

While hailing ties between the two countries, Paul talked about India's huge potential and said the two countries are still exploring the areas in which they can work more together.

"The Netherlands was one of the first countries to recognize the Republic of India. Our ties go back much longer to 1602 and since those days we have invested in relationships and are still exploring the possibilities because India has huge potential and we as like-minded countries are still exploring the possibilities to work further on that," he said.

"Different areas traditionally like in water, agriculture, healthcare, there is an intense relationship between the two countries and these days when everyone is looking for sustainable growth, new challenges come up and we exchange information and we can help each other because since it's a two-way street and India is also of course for us extremely important because of the position in Indo pacific region," he added.

Notably, marking a milestone moment in Indo-Dutch friendship and celebrating 75 years of bilateral relations and cultural ties between India and the Netherlands, the two countries on Tuesday together unveiled a mural art project in Delhi on Tuesday. The dreamy, vivid painting comes as a gift to India from the Netherlands.

In the Delhi mural, viewers can see an Indian woman, accompanied by a tiger. The two figures represent India in all its splendor. As the Netherlands is known for its water management and Delfts Blue ceramics, these visual motifs were chosen to represent the Netherlands in the mural.

The backdrop in orange is a colour common to both countries -- in the Indian flag and as a reference to the family name of the Dutch royal family, the House of Orange-Nassau. (ANI)