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Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal met with Norwegian Health Minister Jan Christian Vestre to foster ties across healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and technology. 

Vestre, the Minister of Health and Care Services, Norway, is on a visit to India to deepen the country’s collaboration in the health sector.

“We discussed deepening cooperation across healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and tech-led innovation to deliver quality, affordable, and accessible care for our people,” said Goyal in a post on social media platform X, announcing his meeting with Vestre.

Earlier, Health and Family Welfare Minister J P Nadda also held a meeting with Vestre and discussed India's priorities in digital health, human resource development, maternal and child nutrition, and collaborative research on diseases.

Nadda also proposed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for deepening collaboration between the two nations in health, medicine, and drug regulation.

"Met with Jan Christian Vestre, Health Minister of Norway, in New Delhi today. I proposed signing of MoUs for furthering our collaboration in health and medicine, as well as drug regulation," the Health Minister posted on X.

"Discussed India’s priorities in digital health, human resource development, maternal and child nutrition, and collaborative research on diseases. Looking forward to advancing our healthcare partnership and further deepening bilateral relations between our two countries," he added.

Vestre, who last year visited India as Norway's Minister of Trade, is also expected to attend the Bengaluru Tech Summit.

Meanwhile, the Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI), signed between the two countries, has successfully completed three phases and is currently in its fourth phase.

The initiative aimed to help India achieve the National Health Policy and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and provide crucial technical support to the Health Ministry and National Health Mission (NHM).

In October, Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava chaired the annual meeting of the NIPI along with Norway's Ambassador to India, May-Elin Stener.

The meeting aimed to review and approve the NIPI Progress Report 2025 and the budgeted work plans for 2025-26 under Phase IV of the initiative.

NIPI’s vision is to provide strategic, catalytic and innovative support to India’s National Health Mission (NHM), in Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir.