Greek Independence Day celebrated in New Delhi

The 202nd anniversary of Greek Independence Day was celebrated in New Delhi with a formal reception arranged by H.E. the Ambassador of Greece to India, Mr. Dimitrios Ioannou on Monday, March 27, 2023.

The Ambassador of Greece to India, Mr Dimitrios Ioannou, in his welcoming speech, said that Greece and India are natural allies and countries with a long civilisational background, ELINEPA wrote.

Ioannou also praised Minister Lekhi’s commitment to the promotion of the cooperation between the two countries and thanked her for her proposal to inscribe a shared Greek-Indian cultural heritage in various fields in the framework of UNESCO.

Ambassador Ioannou also noted that if “a country like India did not exist, we should have invented a country like this”.

The Guest of Honor at the reception was H.E. Mrs. Meenakshi Lekhi, Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture, Government of India.

In her speech Mrs. Lekhi spoke about the historical contacts between the two ancient civilizations since millennia. She spoke about the interactions between the Indo-Greek Kingdoms in Bactria and India and about Megasthenes, who was the first ever recorded foreign Ambassador to India.

She also expressed her gratefulness to the Greek Indologist Dimitrios Galanos who made known the Indian culture to the Western World through his translations.

Listen to Mrs. Meenakshi Lekhi’s whole speech in the video below:

The reception was attended by government and military officials, ambassadors, dignitaries, as well as scholars and artists, businessmen, and friends of Greece including Mr.Rishabh Jain, Vice president of the Greek Indian Business Association and many other members of GIBA and ELINEPA.

The Economic Times of India also published a special report on the economic relations between India and Greece that included a short article of the Greek Ambassador to India.

Greek Independence Day, observed on March 25th, celebrates the country’s victory in the War for Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution, waged by the Greek revolutionaries between 1821 and 1832 against the Ottoman Turks.

The national holiday is marked by great parades, patriotic speeches, and demonstrations in Greece and by the Greek delegations and communities abroad.

READ MORE: India's role in the 1821 Greek Revolution.