New Delhi, November 9: India and Lebanon held the first Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) in New Delhi on Monday, discussing ways to deepen bilateral cooperation across several sectors and exchanging views on regional and international issues of shared interest, news agency IANS reported.

Source: IANS

The meeting was co-chaired by Sripriya Ranganathan, Secretary, Consular, Passport and Visa and Overseas Indian Affairs, in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), and Ambassador Abdel Sattar Issa, Secretary-General of Lebanon's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants.

Trade, digital infrastructure and pharma named priorities

"The meeting reviewed the entire gamut of India-Lebanon bilateral relations and discussed ways to further strengthen it across political-security, economic and socio-cultural pillars. They identified cooperation in trade and investment, digital public infrastructure and pharmaceuticals as priorities. They also discussed regional and international issues of mutual interest," the MEA posted on X, according to IANS.

The consultations are the first institutionalised foreign-office dialogue between the two countries, giving a relationship that has run largely on individual visits a formal, recurring channel, Nation Press reported in its account of the meeting.

Source: Nation Press

Groundwork laid in Beirut in August

Earlier in August, Ranganathan had called on Nawaf Salam, Prime Minister of Lebanon, and discussed building on the strong platform of bilateral cooperation, the Embassy of India in Beirut stated on X. During the same visit she also met Ambassador Abdel Sattar Issa in Beirut to review the full range of bilateral relations and the evolving situation in the region.

Ranganathan also met Nabih Berri, President of the National Assembly of Lebanon, during the Beirut visit and discussed ways to further strengthen the India-Lebanon partnership, including through parliamentary exchanges, IANS reported.

What happens next: neither side announced dates for a second round in the reports of Monday's meeting. The MEA's stated priorities — trade and investment, digital public infrastructure and pharmaceuticals — are the areas where follow-up announcements would be expected first.