Thaindian News

Warsaw, July 4 (IANS) India and Poland Wednesday signed an agreement to establish a legal framework for audio-visual co-production, especially films.

The agreement was signed by visiting Indian Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni and her Polish counterpart Bogdan Zdrojewski.

Soni expressed joy and satisfaction over the improvement of relations between the two countries ever since Poland joined the European Union in May 2004.

“Poland is now a full-fledged stable democratic polity in eastern Europe and it is now well-advanced in film productions. Polish films and film directors, such as Andrezj Wajda, Roman Polanski and Krzystof Zanussi are world famous. It will be very beneficial for us to cooperate with Poland and both the countries can produce films and programmes jointly,” Soni told IANS.

Soni is on a three-day official visit to Poland and it is for the first time that any Indian minister of information and broadcasting has visited the country.

Soni is heading an official delegation that includes Tripurari Sharan, director-general of Doordarshan.

During her visit, Soni attended a lunch hosted by the India-Poland Chamber of Commerce and Industry, where she was briefed about bilateral trade which has now touched $2 billion annually.

Soni lauded the role of the chamber in promoting a deep and strong relationship between the two countries.

She sais she was happy to know about the establishment of a gurdwara, and congratulated J.J. Singh, president of the gurdwara committee.

In the past three years, there has been a big swing in India-Poland relations starting with the visit of Indian President Pratibha Patil in April 2009.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk paid a visit to India in October 2010 to strengthen the relations between the two countries.

In August 2011, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslow Sikorski visited India when Poland was heading the EU presidency.