India's High Commissioner to Canada Vishnu Prakash on Wednesday said there is a huge wave of excitement among the Indian Diaspora in Canada for the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and almost everyone was looking forward to seeing and hearing him speak at the Ricoh Coliseum Auditorium here.
"It is a huge wave of excitement among the Diaspora. The auditorium, the Coliseum, I am told, will be packed and, as I said, the people-to-people relationship (between India and Canada) is one of the very important aspects of the relationship. There is tremendous anticipation and excitement all across Canada for Prime Minister Modi's visit," Vishnu Prakash told ANI.
"The Indian Diaspora in Canada are very proud Indian citizens. The culture, the heritage, goes back to India. There is a very vibrant Sikh community, a vibrant Hindu community, and the Prime Minister is going to visit the Khalsa Diwan Society Gurudwara in Vancouver, which is the oldest Gurudwara in Northern America," he added.
Prakash further said the Canadian Government has rolled out a red carpet welcome for Prime Minister Modi in Canada.
"It (red carpet welcome) is one aspect. The second aspect is that the convergences between India and Canada are huge and practically in every area. One pillar of the relationship are the economic and commercial relations. Another pillar is the people-to-people relations because, we have large Diaspora," he said.
Prakash also said that science and technology, education, skill development and energy have the whole gamut of aspects which are important to the India-Canada relationship.
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"For us, energy security is an important facet between India and Canada. We already have a civil nuclear cooperation agreement signed in 2010 and Canada is the first country with which India had signed that agreement," he added.
Prakash further added, "Canada and India have a similarity of outlook on the issue of terrorism. Both countries realize this is one challenge that has to be met head on by the international community. We are happy on the convergence of views."
Prime Minister Modi, who arrived in Ottawa earlier on the third and final leg of his three-nation tour, is likely to hold talks with his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper on issues such as security and international matters of mutual interest to both sides.
Talking about the Prime Minister's visit, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin had earlier described the Prime Minister's visit as a historic milestone as it was the first time in 42 years that an Indian Prime Minister has come for a stand alone bilateral visit to Canada.
Prime Minister Modi is on the third and final leg of his nine-day-long foreign, having earlier visited France and Germany. He will also make stopovers in Toronto and Vancouver. (ANI)
