Paras Ramoutar/IANS

Port-of-Spain, Aug 16: India and Trinidad and Tobago will share expertise in textiles with the signing of a pact on fashion technology.

Indian High Commissioner Malay Mishra said the agreement signals collaboration between India's Institute of Fashion Technology and the University of Trinidad and Tobago's Caribbean Academy of Fashion Designing to develop exchanges between the students, plan courses and provide faculty.

He said the Indian government has also received requests from Trinidad and Tobago in the areas of IT, healthcare, agriculture and security.

"There is also the possibility of bringing in experts in the field of renewable energy and ocean development in the future.

"Our developing a bilateral cooperation programme is based on several pillars - IT, culture, trade, education and training, agriculture, technical assistance, science and technology. These are our strengths, which we are sharing with Trinidad and Tobago," Mishra said.

"To the people of Trinidad and Tobago, I say we all should set an example for the region by bringing greater unity and a stable society free from violence because we are in a world already tormented by so many other problems we don't want any other disturbance," Mishra said.

He said India and the Caribbean nation have built "very solid, positive relations in many areas".

"We want to further consolidate those relations and build from strength to strength for the betterment and development of our people."

India's independence day holds great reverence to the Indian diaspora here.

Trinidad and Tobago has a population of 1.3 million people and 44 percent of them constitute the Indian diaspora, whose forefathers came from India, principally Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. They came here to work on the sugar plantations and also to beef up failing agricultural production.