New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will be travelling to Fiji to attend the 12th World Hindi Conference that is being co-hosted by the Governments of India and Fiji on February 15-17 in Nadi, Fiji. EAM will also travel to Sydney, Australia, on February 18, a statement said on Monday.
Jaishankar’s visit to Fiji would be his first since assuming the post.
The visit is also the first by an incoming Ministerial delegation after the formation of the new Government in Fiji in December 2022.
The EAM would hold bilateral meetings with the new leadership of Fiji, the statement said.
The visit comes close on the heels of the first high-level visit to India by Deputy Prime Minister Prof. Biman Prasad on February 5-10 during which he met the EAM and other officials in New Delhi.
EAM’s visit to Sydney on February 18 would be his third visit to Australia since February 2022 when he first visited Australia as EAM.
He would have meetings with the leadership of Australia in Sydney. He would also attend the Raisina@Sydney Conference to be held in Australia for the first time.
EAM Jaishankar and Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka will jointly inaugurate the 12th World Hindi Conference on February 15, which is being held at the Denarau Island Convention Center, in Nadi, Fiji.
Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad will attend the concluding ceremony of the conference on February 17.
The decision to host the conference in Fiji was taken at the last World Hindi Sammelan in Mauritius in 2018, said Secretary (East) in the MEA Saurabh Kumar at a briefing last week.
Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan and Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs Ajay Mishra will also attend the conference.
MoS Muraleedharan in a tweet said, “As I arrived in Sydney enroute to Fiji for World Hindi Conference, had a productive discussion with Australia India Business Council National Chair, Ms Jodi McKay & a few other members.
“Discussed ways to foster trade and business relationship in the growing bilateral space.’
A 270 team from India will be travelling to Fiji for the conference, while many Hindi scholars from India and abroad will participate in the conference. Representatives from 50 countries would also participate in the sammelan.
During the event scholars of Hindi and those who have contributed to the language will be honoured.
The South and Northeast region will be given emphasis to and experts from these regions will be participating in the conference.
The theme of the conference is ‘Hindi – Traditional Knowledge to Artificial Intelligence’.
Ten parallel sessions will be held during the conference. These are: Hindi in Girmitiya countries; Hindi in Fiji and the Pacific; IT and Hindi in the 21st century; Media and the global perception of Hindi; Global reference of Indian knowledge traditions and Hindi; Linguistic coordination and Hindi translation; Different forms of Hindi cinema and global scenario; Global market and Hindi; Pravasi Hindi sahitya in changing scenario and Hindi teaching in India and abroad – challenges and solutions.
