Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh met Lekhram Soerdjan, Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries of the Republic of Suriname in Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi today and called for deepening bilateral cooperation in agriculture and allied sectors for the benefit of the people of Suriname.The Minister observed that the visit adds to the historical and cultural ties going back to 145 years and said relations between the two countries must be enhanced further through people to people and government to government contacts. He assured his counterpart from Suriname of full cooperation in agriculture and allied sectors and said that the Work Plan of Joint Working Group (JWG) on Agriculture for 2017-21 would facilitate Training/Study visit of Indian Scientists/scholars to Suriname to build capacity of the farmers/agricultural scientists in various areas relating to agriculture and allied sectors such as food processing, animal husbandry and fisheries under the purview of JWG.On the request of the Ambassador of Suriname to further rice research in the country in collaboration with ICAR, the Minister directed ICAR to initiate talks with its counterpart in Suriname.The Minister appreciated the efforts of the Government of Suriname for organising the celebration of 145th anniversary of the arrival of Indians in Suriname during May & June, 2018 and preserving and propagating the Hindi language by the Hindustani community in the country. He also thanked the Government of the Republic of Suriname for sending a high level delegation to participate in the International Solar Alliance Conference, an initiative of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.