India, Trinidad & Tobago ink air services pact

New Delhi, Jan 6 (PTI) India will soon establish air links with Trinidad and Tobago as the two countries Friday signed a bilateral air services agreement (BASA) here, a long pending demand of the Carribean nation. BASA allows designated air carriers to operate flights connecting destinations in the each country. Besides inking BASA, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Carribean counterpart Kamala Persaad-Bissessar also decided to strengthen ties in health, culture and education. In talks during the day, Singh also highlighted the interest shown by Indian companies -- both public and private sector -- to invest in the energy sector and it was decided that India's Oil Minister Jaipal Reddy would visit the Carribean nation in the near future "to further concretise areas of mutually beneficial cooperation". Trinidad and Tobago is rich in oil and gas resources and has the largest and most vibrant economy in the Caribbean with oil and gas exports having a major share. Singh said that India's growing energy needs would be met only through imports and would explore ways and means to source LNG from the Carribean nation. The two sides also signed an MoU on cooperation in traditional Indian medicine including the setting up of a chair on Ayurveda in the University of West Indies. They also inked pacts on programme of cultural exchanges and technical cooperation agreement in the field of education. Persaad-Bissessar's visit is the first by a woman Head of Government of Indian origin and has a special resonance as far as India is concerned. Singh said he and Persaad-Bissessar also decided to vigorously pursue the thrust areas for bilateral trade and investments identified by the Inter-Governmental Joint Commission. "These include hydrocarbons and renewable energy, agriculture, IT and communications, hospitality, health, pharmaceuticals and tourism. We believe that mutually beneficial partnerships can be forged in all these areas," he said. Singh said the signing of BASA will help in further development of trade and tourism links. The two leaders also agreed to enhance bilateral technical cooperation through exchange of experts. "Towards this end, Government of India has agreed to enhance the annual ITEC scholarship slots for Trinidad and Tobago from current 30 to 50," Singh said. Persad-Bissessar is the chief guest at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, the Government of India organised annual meeting of the Indian diaspora, that gets underway in the northwest Indian city of Jaipur tomorrow. She is being conferred with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award at the meet. Besides Jaipur, Persad-Bissessar will also visit the Kolkata Memorial Monument in the eastern Indian metropolis from where her ancestors had set sail for the island nation in the middle of the 19th century and the ancestral village of Bhelupur in Buxar district in the eastern state of Bihar. PTI