Expanding ties between India and African nations has been one of the hallmarks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign policy since he first came to power in 2014, India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Thursday.
“The future cooperation between India and Africa and India and Uganda, which [lies] at the very heart of Africa, was the subject of my many conversations during the visit,” Jaishankar said in a podcast after concluding the Uganda leg of his two-nation Africa visit.
Jaishankar's Agenda in Uganda
While in Uganda, the Indian top diplomat met with the country's President Yoweri Museveni and held talks with the nations’s foreign, defence and trade ministers.
Jaishankar also inaugurated two India-funded projects in Uganda — a campus of the National Forensic Science University and a solar water pump project, which would supply water to half a million Ugandans in 20 districts.
Jaishankar stated that India and Uganda shared a “very convergent” perspective on the world outlook, with both countries firm backers of the “democratisation” of the world order.
He added that growing ties between the countries are a brught example of ”South-South cooperation”.
Jaishankar also underscored that New Delhi was striving to “articulate” the concerns of the Global South during its ongoing presidency of the G-20 grouping and recalled that India played host the Voice of the Global South Summit in January.
The Indian diplomat underscored Africa’s priorities, which are green growth, digital delivery and health preparedness.
Recalling the leadership-level visits between India and Uganda in recent years, Jaishankar noted that PM Modi’s visit to the country in 2018, the first by any Indian leader, was a “matter of particular satisfaction”.
During his visit, Modi laid out the ‘Kampala Principles’ on important areas of cooperation between New Delhi and the African continent, which, Jaishankar said, serve as a template for India’s partnership with the developing nations.
In recent years, India has emerged as one of the top five investor countries in Africa, with inflows to the tune of $75 billion.
India’s two-way trade to Africa neared $90 billion in 2021-22.
New Delhi has also emerged as a supplier of military hardware to African countries and has sent the biggest troop continent to African countries under the UN peacekeeping framework.