New Delhi: India and Norway held the 9th round of Foreign Office Consultations in Oslo on Thursday where both sides exchanged views on enhancing trade and investment cooperation based on strong political relations.

Secretary (West) Sanjay Verma co-chaired the consultations from the Indian side, and Secretary General Tore Hattrem co-chaired the meeting from the Norwegian side. Both sides discussed bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest. Discussions were held in a friendly and cooperative atmosphere.

Specific areas of collaboration included clean energy, environment and climate change, blue economy for sustainable development, shipping and maritime, higher education, science and technology, arctic and polar research and space, said the Ministry of External Affairs in a press release.

Both sides also exchanged views on regional issues, including the EU, the Ukraine conflict, Afghanistan, developments in India's neighbourhood and the Indo-Pacific.

They also underlined the need for UNSC reform and exchanged views on each other's priorities in multilateral fora, counter-terrorism and terrorist listing.

Both sides expressed satisfaction at the current momentum of India-Norway relations. They agreed to hold the next round of Consultations at the earliest mutually convenient date in the first half of 2023 in India.