Onboard Air India One, June 18 (ANI): Wrapping up his six-day three-nation state visits to Ghana, Cote D Ivoire and Namibia on Friday night, President Pranab Mukherjee told media persons onboard the special aircraft bring them home, that both Ghana and Namibia have evinced interest in looking at bilateral cooperation in the civil nuclear energy sector.
He said the leaderships of both African nations have in principle agreed to explore possibilities and committed to work out modalities for discussions on the way forward in this regard, and added that Namibia in particular, has said that it will study New Delhi's initiatives in this sector. The Namibian leadership, he added, has assured that it will explore ways to supply uranium to India. A technical team from both sides would meet at the earliest to take the discussions forward, he said.
Mukherjee said that during his discussions with Namibian President Dr. Hage Geingob, the latter had said that New Delhi could also explore possibilities of investing in the uranium sector. The Indian delegation, he said, has informed the Namibian leadership that it will get back to them on the issue.
Summing up his trip to these three nations, President Mukherjee said, that overall, the state visits helped reinvigorate "our already strong and time-tested bilateral relations.
"We have, through these visits, conveyed the message that India takes its engagement with Africa seriously and intends to follow-up with determination on the announcements made at the IAFS-III. India is committed to further consolidate our cooperation with all African countries --- We will continue to focus on capacity building, with a view to strengthening their self-reliance," he said.
President Mukherjee said that the other key issues that dominated discussions were India and the African continent's insistence for United Nations reform, especially in the context of making it more representative in character. He said that the leaderships of all three countries were in agreement with New Delhi that "the present structure (of the United Nations) does not reflect current realities, and that reforms have been delayed for too long."
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"The leaders of all three countries expressed the view that there is need for urgent reform of the UN. India, with one-sixth of the world's population as well as the African continent must be represented in the U N Security Council (UNSC)," he added.
He said that the issue of terrorism also figured prominently during the tri-nation talks, and added that he had highlighted that no distinction should be made between 'good' and 'bad' terrorism when it comes to countering this scourge against humanity.
Trade and economic ties, improving quality and extending cooperation and assistance in the field of higher education and capacity building also featured in the talks.
He said that Ghanaian leadership expressed an interest in expanding cooperation across the board, including in new areas such as civil nuclear energy, renewable energy, the SME sector, railways and sustainable agriculture.
In the Cote D Ivoire, apart from being conferred with that nation's highest national honour - the Grand Croix Commander in the National Merit Order - and being given the symbolic key to the city of Abidjan, both sides decided to organise a meeting of their joint commission later in the year to follow up on the discussions held during the current visit.
In Namibia, both sides explored possibilities of infusing new synergy in areas such as defence, energy, minerals and information technology, besides expanding cooperation in renewable energy, agriculture, capacity building and development cooperation,
At the multilateral level, issues such as UN reforms, terrorism, climate change and sustainable development featured.