New Delhi, June 17: India and Germany today signed an agreement on Cultural Exchange Programe (CEP) for enhancing cooperation in various fields including education, music and literature. The CEP particularly highlights the importance of the Asia Pacific weeks scheduled to be held in Berlin in September in which India will participate as the focus country. As part of the week, India will organise an exhibition on Indian Bronze Art (the sublime and ascetics in early sculptures of India) at Berlin from September 2003 to January 2004.

The agreement was signed by Dhirendra Kumar, secretary, Ministry of Tourism and Culture, and Wilfried Grolig, Director General for Culture and Education of Germany, after two days of consultations between ''high-ranking delegations'' of the two countries here, the German Embassy said. Today's meeting was the eleventh such meeting.

The agreement comes less than three weeks after the visit of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Germany and his talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Shroeder on international issues as well as on intensifying Indo-German relations.

The Indian side informed the German delegation about the recently launched national mission for manuscripts to explore possible future Indo-German cooperation in identifying and cataloguing manuscripts of Indian origin available in Germany. The two sides also exchanged opinions on cultural policy and long-term perspectives for cultural exchange. Both sides agreed that this type of cultural dialogue shall in future also form part of the consultations between the two governments.

Bureau Report