India announces missions in Dominican Republic Estonia, Paraguay

The government of India declared that it would open three missions in Estonia, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic in 2021 after a Cabinet conference chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi received the proposal from the Ministry of External Affairs.

“The opening of the missions will help increase India’s diplomatic footprint, deepen political relations, enable the growth of mutual trade, investment and economic engagements, facilitate stronger people-to-people contacts, bolster political outreach in multilateral fora and help garner support for the different policy objectives,” said an official statement, adding that the move would also help the diaspora members living in these mountains.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said he was looking ahead to the “early establishment” of the missions. While the government had declared the opening of 18 missions in 2018, not all of them have been set yet, and the impact of the pandemic may further delay the opening from the newly announced missions.

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu embraced the decision stating it would strong ties in business and cybersecurity.

“We will also serve together in the Security Council next time,” Mr Reinsalu said that Former Estonian Ambassador to India Viljar Lubji, is also now the Business Development Secretary in the Ministry of Economy, said the decision was being awaited since 2013, when Estonia set up its embassy in Delhi, while India has to deal with it through its embassy in nearby Finland. “Every relationship demands commitment and constant work, and embassies play a key part. Without them, links remain a bit hectic,” he told .