Kalam leaves for New Delhi after Greece visit

Athens, Apr 28: President APJ Abdul Kalam today left for New Delhi after a four-day visit to France and Greece, which officials described as ''highly successful'', having helped in the further widening of relations with European countries.

The President was seen off at the Athens Airport by Deputy Foreign Minister Y Valinakis and the Indian Ambassador to Greece Dr B Balakrishnan.

He will be arriving in New Delhi at 2000 hrs IST.

Dr Kalam had gone to the French city of Strasbourg to address the European Parliament on the 50th anniversary of the European Union, for which he had been invited by its former president.

He impressed EU Members with his concept of the synthesis of science and spirituality, forcing the President of the European Parliament to remark that it was one of the most extraordinary speeches he had ever heard.

Strasbourg is the seat of the European Parliament.

This was the first ever address by an Indian head of state to the body which represents over 500 million people of the world.

Lauding the European Union's experiment in regional cooperation, President Kalam called upon its members to consider India as an active partner in a similar experiment at the global scale for achieving peace and prosperity.

Dr Kalam presented to the European countries a blue print for three important Indo-European missions aimed at achieving global peace and properity.

One was for evolving a citizen with a value system, the second was a three-dimensional approach for energy choice towards realising a clean planet Earth and the third called the World Knowledge Platform was for synergising the core competence of the European Union and India in certain areas, for providing solutions to critical issues like water, healthcare and capacity building.

In Greece, President Kalam met top leaders and eminent people from various walks of life and had discussions with Greek leaders on various bilateral issues.

India and Greece have agreed to increase their trade to one billion Euros by 2010 and further strengthen their cooperation in the field of science and technology.

Greece has also assured India assistance in checking the problem of human trafficking.

During President Kalam's visit, two important agreements were signed between the two countries. One of the agreements was related to 'Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments.

The agreement aims at intensifying investment flows to the mutual benefit of both countries and to create favourable conditions for investment by the investors.

The other agreement is related to the development of scientific and technological cooperation envisaging exchange of researchers and scientists and undertaking joint research projects.

For implementing the agreement, a joint committee of the two countries would be constituted.

Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis agreed to visit India later this year and Greek President Karolos Populias also expressed his wish to visit India soon.

UNI