International conference aPurbasa: East meets East

Bhubaneshwar, March 17: Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said that enhancing connectivity is crucial to deepening India's diplomatic, economic and cultural ties with the Indo-Pacific countries.

"The geopolitical climate of today has unleashed on us new perils as well as opportunities. It is imperative, therefore, in my mind to combat the current uncertainties by sticking together as a group and intensifying our economic, cultural and trade imprints across our nations," he said in his address at international conference aPurbasa: East meets East' organized by the Kalinga International Foundation (KIF) here.

He said the Act East Policy of the union government envisages the development of North-East Region (NER) with adequate infrastructure and human resource capital in order to facilitate people-to-people contacts on social, cultural, academic and economic platforms for physical and soft connectivity.