With an objective at consolidating the gains that India has made at the India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) and further strengthening and reinvigorating bilateral ties with the African partners, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick off his four-nation visit to Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya from July 7.
The Prime Minister will begin his five-day visit starting with Mozambican capital Maputo.
"This is the third segment of high-level visits that was planned to Africa as a follow up to IAFS. The first of course was of the Vice President from May 30 to June 5 to Morocco and Tunisia, followed by our own President going to Ghana Ivory Coast and Namibia from June 12-18. So, in the first half of this year, this is the third segment, which covers four countries in five days," said Amar Sinha, Secretary, Economic Relations, Ministry of External Affairs, at a media briefing on Monday.
Underlining the importance of the first visit by Prime Minister Modi to the African mainland, Sinha said, "All these four countries, if you look at the map, are our maritime neighbours across the Indian Ocean. These are all our gateways to the (African) mainland and a number of landlocked countries which are also our important partners. So, basically the Indian traders also rely on ports in these countries whether in Mombasa, Beira or further down in South Africa."
Stating that the focus of this visit would be on energy, Sinha said, "Mozambique is the third largest exporter of natural gas after Qatar and Australia. Then food security; we are importing large number of food items, particularly pulses like arhar, tur and moong, as these countries are major sources of pulses."
Talking about the Prime Minister's interaction with the Indian diaspora, he said: "All these three countries, of course varying degrees, but we have sizable diaspora: Kenya 80,000, Tanzania 50,000, Mozambique 20,000 and of course South Africa has more than a million. The Prime Minister will be meeting the diaspora in all the four countries, but both in Johannesburg and Kenya, he will be addressing them in a large format, because the response was so overwhelming that we had over 10,000-15,000 registrations in a day by people who wanted to come to listen to him."
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"Besides these, the maritime dimension also dictates the choices of these countries, which are very-very important, as they are all members of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). So, we are interested in blue economy and maritime security as well," he added.
Sinha further said these countries are also members of International Solar Alliance, which is our initiative. "So we are looking at consolidating the gains that we have made at the IAFS," he added.
Noting this is the first visit by the Prime Minister to the African mainland, Sinha said, "All these visits are happening after a long-long gap: Mozambique after 34 years, where Mrs (Indira) Gandhi was the last to visit; Kenya after 35 years; and South Africa after 10 years. Tanzania was visited by former prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2011."
MEA official spokesperson Vikas Swarup had earlier last week said Prime Minister Modi will have bilateral discussions with Mozambican President Filipe Nyus on July 7 to strengthen bilateral ties between both sides and enhance development cooperation.
"From 8th to 9th July in South Africa, the Prime Minister will have meetings with President Jacob Zuma and other senior leaders across the political spectrum to further enhance our historical relations with South Africa. With South Africa we cooperate and work closely also in multi-lateral fora like BRICS, IBSA, G20 and BASIC," he added.
The Prime Minister is also expected to visit Johannesburg, Pietermaritzburg and Durban during the visit.
Pietermaritzburg is the place where Mahatma Gandhi was thrown out of the train compartment.
The Prime Minister will have meetings with President John Pombe Joseph Magufuli in Tanzania on July10 to further enhance mutual cooperation and understanding on major issues of common interest.
The Prime Minister will be in Kenya the next day where he will have bilateral discussions with President Kenyatta.
Prime Minister Modi will also address students in the University of Nairobi during the visit.
"The visit of the Prime Minister to the African mainland reflects India's desire to further strengthen and reinvigorate bilateral ties with our African partners which were renewed at the successful India-Africa Forum Summit-III in October last year. The visit will provide opportunities to build on close contacts at the highest political level and enhance mutual cooperation and understanding on major issues of common interest," Swarup added.