In the period 09-13 December 2025, the High Commissioner of Malta to India, H.E. Reuben Gauci travelled from New Delhi to the Indian State of Nagaland in order to represent Malta in the Hornbill Festival which festival is organized on a yearly basis by the Government of the Indian North Eastern State of Nagaland.

The Hornbill Festival takes place annually at the Kisama Heritage Village, near Kohima, Nagaland and showcases the rich culture of 17 Naga tribes through traditional music, dance, indigenous games, crafts, and cuisine, alongside the popular Hornbill Music Festival with rock concerts, a “Battle of the Bands,” and night bazaars.

For the occasion, renowned Maltese Poet and Academic Prof Norbert Bugeja, travelled from Malta to India to actively participate in this festival, most especially in the 5th edition of Nagaland Literature Festival 2025, which was inaugurated on Friday 12 December 2025, in which event Prof Bugeja spoke to the students and attendees and also had time to read some of his Maltese poetry which was translated into the English Language.

During his visit to India, Prof Norbert Bugeja also gave a talk and had a 2 hour long interactive conversation with Doctoral and Masters students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University ( JNU ), New Delhi at the Centre for English Studies on Monday 15 January 2025. The main subjects of the interaction were: Anglophone writing in the Mediterranean and across India, Malta’s post-Independence literary revival, the sea and its decolonial and memorial claims, the solidarity of sound across Maltese, Hindi and other languages and contemporary poetry-writing in Malta and in the Indian subcontinent.