President of International Chambers of Media and Entertainment Industry, Sandeep Marwaha Jii,
Team of AAFT University,
Distinguished participants,
Ladies and gentlemen, friends from the media.It is my great pleasure to participate in this program. I thank our host for the kind invitation.
Nepal and India are two ancient civilization countries. Our relations are as old as our civilization. Nepal attaches high importance to these age old relations, both at the government and people levels. We are enjoying excellent bilateral ties. Founded on the age-old connection of history, culture, tradition and religion, these relations are close, comprehensive and multidimensional and are pronounced more in political, social, cultural, religious and economic engagements.
Girija Prasad Koirala Foundation and I personally remain committed to further depeen and widen these relations for mutual benefits. We have art and culture domain in our foundation organizing different cultural activities across Nepal.
We would be very pleased to have a joint collaboration with ICMEI and other institutions with same objectives to conduct similar activities and further enhance our relationship to new heights.
During his recent visit Lumbini, birthplace of Lord Buddha, Indian Prime Minister Modi Jii advocated to preserve our culture and identity creating Lumbini circuit and Ramayana circuit. These ideas are not only promoting economic activities, bilateral connectivity, but also our cultural connectivity people to people.
Another component of Nepal-India cultural relations is cinemas and music. Indian movies and music are very popular in Nepal. Similarly, Nepali cinemas and music are popular in India, especially in places with concentration of the people of Nepalese origin, mainly in Northern and North-eastern India. We have common root to our language that makes easier to understand is another component of Nepal-India cultural affinity.
Between Nepal and India, there have been frequent exchanges of ideas, academicians, professionals and groups of people representing the areas of the art, culture, music, literature and sports. These kinds of events are not confined to government level only, but are taking place even more at the people to people level. So, I would like to request to all my Indian friends focus to develop such concepts and we are open to collaborate for our future engagements.
With this brief remark, I would like to thank once again for inviting me to be a part of this program and for the warm reception. Thank you all, thank you very much.