India-Norway signed 13 agreements to promote bilateral relations

India and Norway on 14 October 2014 signed 13 agreements to promote bilateral relations. These include agreement between Defence sector of two countries and an agreement on exemption of visa requirement for holders of diplomatic and official passports.

The agreements were signed in Oslo in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg.

President Mukherjee was on a three day, from 12 to 14 October 2014, visit to the Scandinavian nation, Norway on the invitation of King Harald V. Mukherjee is the first Indian head to pay an official visit to Norway.

Following are the list of Agreements signed
• Agreement on exemption of visa requirement for holders of diplomatic and official passports to promote bilateral relations
• MoU to promote cultural co-operation and exchanges between the two nations
• MoU in the field of Earth System Sciences to allow exchange of scientific resources, personnel and technical knowledge to support the improvement and development of progress in Earth Sciences and services.
• Three MoU signed by IIT Kanpur with NTNU, University of Oslo and NILU to promote mobility of students and faculty/staff, joint research activities and publications, exchange of academic materials and special short-term academic programs.
• Two MoU signed by IISER, Thiruvananthapuram with SINTEF Materials and Chemistry and Institute of Energy Technology to enhance relations between the two institutions and to develop academic and cultural interchange in the areas of education, research and other activities and to cooperate and work towards internationalization of higher education.
• Three MoU signed by University of Hyderabad with University of Oslo, NTNU and University of Bergen to enhance relations between the two Universities and develop academic and cultural interchange
• Statement of Intent (SoI) in Defence sector with an aim to explore opportunities for cooperation in research and development programs in the field of defence research
• MoU to support promotion and extension of cooperation in "Scientific Research and Technology Development” in the fields of mutual interest of both sides
• MoU to establish a health research relationship for encouraging research in a range of health-related areas of mutual interest, including human vaccines, infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance
• MoU between Indira Gandhi National Tribal University and University of Agder to enhance the two universities to develop academic especially computer education co -operation to develop a boundary less education system