India has historical links to Africa, and Indian migrants can be found across the continent, often with family roots that stretch back for several generations.
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India on Tuesday made a strong pitch for early reforms of the United Nations Security Council before a gathering of Africa’s leaders, saying both India and and Africa can no longer be excluded from their “rightful place” in the world body.
Modi also announced in his speech that India will increase its cooperation with Africa on maritime security to counter “terrorism and extremism”.
At the meeting with the India Exim Bank delegation, she discussed the implementation of the US$144 million Line of Credit Agreement for the energy sector.
The balance of trade is generally in favour of Morocco because of India’s imports of phosphoric acid and rock ph’sphate.
The minister suggested putting in place a regular review mechanism to evaluate implementation of the various cooperation initiatives between India and Africa at the bilateral, regional and pan-African levels. “Today as one of the fastest growing economies in Asia, India is attaching the utmost importance to its economic engagement with the African countries”, the External Affairs Minister said.
On Thursday, India’s Amity University is slated to sign memoranda of cooperation respectively with Morocco’s Al Akhawayn University and ESCA School of Management for exchange in the field of higher education.
Infrastructure projects involving roads, ports, airports, railways and power generation in Africa present enormous opportunities for Indian companies, the report by consulting firm KPMG and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said.
Despite more than doubling since 2007 to $72 billion in fiscal 2014-15, India’s two-way trade with Africa is still comparatively small. “However, Africa is making impressive progress now”, Modi said, later adding, “India has emerged as a major investor from the developing world in Africa, surpassing even China”.
Nigeria’s President has arrived in India from Abuja to participate in the 3rd Summit of the India-Africa Forum.
The third summit was supposed to have been held past year but was delayed because of the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa.
The Minister said that Gambia would provide a safe and stable industrial environment and atmosphere for Indian industry and its investments given the fact that the relations between India and Gambia have grown over the years and matured significantly.
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Although India dropped its veto against a WTO deal to streamline customs procedures a year ago, it remains uneasy over Western pressure on food stockpiling it says is vital to ensure its 1.25 billion people don’t go hungry.
