India, Lativa sign Cultural Exchange Programme

New Delhi, May 30: India and Latvia have inked an important agreement, facilitating cultural exchange programme in the fields of culture, art and mass media between the two countries.

The exchange programme, which will be valid for two years, was signed by Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni and her Latvian counterpart Halena Demakova here last evening.

As per the exchange programme, the National Library of India and the National Library of Latvia will exchange information and experience in areas of common interest. The two sides will also exchange information and experts on the museums. The number of museum experts and experts under the exchange programme will be determined by mutual consultations, for a period not exceeding seven days.

The Indian side will send an exhibition on traditions of crafts produced by village artisans in the country while Latvia will send an exhibition on national costumes prepared by the Latvian museum of History, which will be mounted in an Indian museum.

Both sides will exchange theatre teachers to conduct course in acting, stage craft and production work and also experts in the fields of dance, music, fine arts, literature and audio-visual arts for workshops. The participation of traditional music or dance groups will also be encouraged.

According to the programme, India and Latvia will participate in the international book fairs and exhibitions held in each other's country and in television and film festivals.

Latvia invited India to participate in the International folklore festival, 'Baltica', to be held later this year.

In the field of sports, it was agreed that the two sides will share mutual experiences and also explore the possibilities of exchanging experts and teams in diverse disciplines.

Expressing happiness over the signing of the Exchange Programme, Ms Demakova said, ''It is a programme of mutual benefits that will flow in both directions. We have learnt a lot about Indian culture.

We also want to undertake bilateral cultural research in different fields.'' She said she was also keen to ensure that there was an exhange of scholarly pursuits at the highest level.

Ms Soni said there was a desire in India to learn more about Latvia, which had recently achieved its independent status. ''We have already found a commonality between the two countries in certain areas of culture, especially traditional music. In the next two years, we will learn about each other in a more effective manner.''

UNI