India, Austria ink pacts during Chancellor Christian Stocker’s visit

• Federal Chancellor of Austria Christian Stocker and Prime Minister Narendra Modi held bilateral talks in New Delhi on April 16.

• The two leaders reviewed developments in bilateral relations and expressed satisfaction at the continued progress achieved across different sectors.

• The Austrian Chancellor landed in New Delhi on a four-day trip.

• This is Stocker’s first visit to India.

• It was the first visit of an Austrian Chancellor to India in 42 years.

• India and Austria share warm, friendly and multi-faceted ties, rooted in shared democratic values. 

• The successful visit of PM Modi to Austria in July 2024 substantially elevated the contemporary relations between the two countries.

Key agreements and announcements:

1) Agreement on audiovisual co-production between India and Austria: It will provide a framework for enhanced cooperation between the film industries of the two countries and facilitate joint film production, creative exchanges and greater cultural engagement.

2) Joint Announcement on setting up a fast track mechanism for Indian and Austrian companies: It will identify and solve problems faced by Indian and Austrian companies and investors in each other’s economies. The fast track mechanism will also serve as a platform for discussing general suggestions from the point of view of investors regarding ease of doing business.

3) Letter of Intent on cooperation in military matters: It will provide an institutional framework for promoting cooperation in military matters, defence industrial and technology partnership, building on the momentum of the India-EU Defence and Security Partnership signed on January 27, as well as facilitate defence policy dialogue, training and capacity building.

4) Letter of Intent on joint working group on counter-terrorism: It will advance counter terrorism cooperation between India and Austria including the goal of both sides to work together to establish a Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism for exploring areas of strategic cooperation on issues relating to the fight against terrorism.

5) MoU on food safety between AGES, Austria and FSSAI, India: It will promote cooperation in food safety standards, scientific exchange, capacity building and sharing of best practices in food regulation and risk assessment thereby promoting trade in agricultural and food products, while ensuring highest priority for safety standards.

6) Joint Letter of Intent regarding dual vocational training, skills development and the recognition of vocational qualifications: It will help to expand exchanges and knowledge sharing in the fields of dual vocational training (apprenticeship) and skills development as well as the promotion of recognition of Indian vocational qualifications according to Austrian Standards.

7) Renewal of the MoU on technical cooperation in the road infrastructure sector: It will help to strengthen technical cooperation in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), road safety, electronic toll collection and traffic management.

8) Increased cooperation of startup ecosystems under India-Austria Startup Bridge: Continued collaboration between the startups, unicorns, innovation ecosystems and venture capital networks of the two countries.

9) Launch of Institutional Cybersecurity Dialogue.

10) Partnership between India’s Centre for UN Peacekeeping and Austrian Armed Forces International Centre (AUTINT).

11) Agreement to jointly organise a bilateral space industry seminar in Vienna in Autumn 2026.

12) Operationalisation of working holiday programme.

13) High-technology cooperation as a central pillar of the enhanced India-Austria partnership: Identification of several collaborative R&D projects including in the areas of material science and technology, quantum technology, wastewater treatment, machine learning, lasers, etc under the joint committee of science and technology.

14) Launch a structured bilateral dialogue on cooperation in education: Aimed at enhancing skills development, promote curricula development, facilitate the mutual recognition of qualifications, and support institutional collaboration in higher education and the development of vocational education and training systems.

15) Focus India initiative of Austria's leading technical universities to systematically deepen educational cooperation and research cooperation with India: Launch by the three public technical universities in Austria (Technische Universitat Wien, Technische Universitat Graz und Montanuniversitat Leoben) of a dedicated portal to facilitate admissions for Indian students to pursue engineering and technical masters programmes in Austria).