India to jointly organize 12th World Hindi Conference in Fiji

Delhi: India will organize the 12th World Hindi Conference later this month in Fiji, the external affairs ministry said on Saturday.

The 12th World Hindi Conference organised by the MEA in cooperation with the Fiji government will be held in Nadi in the South Pacific country from February 15-17, Ministry of External Affairs Secretary (East), Saurabh Kumar said during a special media briefing.

A 270-member delegation from India will visit Fiji for the event and representatives from 50 countries are expected to participate in it.

Fiji is an archipelago of more than 300 islands in the South Pacific.
The event will be inaugurated on February 15 by the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, the Secretary said.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan and Minister of State in Ministry of Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra will also be present during the event.

The decision to hold the event in Fiji was taken during the World Hindi Conference in Mauritius last year, according to Kumar.

“The Prime Minister always uses Hindi and has given various speeches in the language in India as well as abroad. This has increased the language’s value and more people have been motivated to use it,” the MEA Secretary said.

“The theme for the event is ‘Hindi – Traditional Knowledge to Artificial Intelligence’ where on one side we are respecting our traditional knowledge and on the other side, showing that Hindi has been successful in walking along with the technological advancements,” Kumar said.

The MEA Secretary said that the Indian government is giving large importance to the Hindi language but the language has made limited progress at the United Nations.

“UN press releases are now available in Hindi. We are trying to get Hindi its rightful place at the UN,” Kumar said.

The upcoming conference will comprise of 10 parallel sessions.
“A group of 270 people will go to Fiji from India to take part in the event. Various Hindi experts from India and abroad will participate in the event. We expect representatives from 50 countries to attend the event,” Kumar said.

Meanwhile, MEA official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Saturday tweeted that the MEA Secretary (East) interacted with an ASEAN media delegation which is on a week-long visit to India.

“Secretary East @AmbSaurabhKumar interacted with @ASEAN media delegation which is on a week-long familiarisation visit to India. The interaction included ASEAN-India relations and our shared heritage. The delegation will also visit Agra and Hyderabad,” Bagchi tweeted.

Saurabh Kumar recently paid an official visit to South Korea and co-chaired the 5th Foreign Policy and Security Dialogue (FPSD) with his Korean counterpart Cho Hyundong.

Taking to Twitter, the Embassy of India in South Korea said, “Secretary East @AmbSaurabhKumar met Rep Kim Tae-ho, Chairperson, Foreign Affairs & Unification Committee of RoK National Assembly @news_NA, and exchanged views to strengthen -ties. They also discussed regional & global issues of mutual interest, including #IndoPacific & #G20.”