President sees ties with Africa as touching the depth of the hearts of the people of India

President Pranab Mukherjee will be undertaking his first visits as Head of State to the African nations of Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire and Namibia from June 12 to June 18, and he sees this trip as going a long way in further deepening the Indo-Africa relationship, said a senior official of his secretariat.

"The President has had a long association with Africa. His most recent and important engagement was the fact that he was the host to the African leaders who came for the India-Africa Third Ssummit in Delhi. The President, incidentally, was the person who as External Affairs Minister in 2008 initiated the first India-Africa Summit.

The last visit of the President to Africa was to attend the memorial meeting in honour of late Nelson Mandela, when he passed away in December of 2013, said Venu Rajamony, Press Secretary to The President, ahead of the tri-nation state visit.

"This is the first ever state visit to both Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire and the second to Namibia. But, the President himself is visiting all these three countries for the first time. He has not been to any of these countries before. In Africa, the President has in the past travelled many times to Mauritius. He has been to Uganda, Libya, Morocco, and of course South Africa. But he's visiting these (three) countries for the first time," Rajamony added.

The Press Secretary further revealed that the President's views on Africa are also fairly well known.

"He has spoken about it many times. But he believes that India's relationship with South Africa is qualitatively different and very rich. It is a relationship which touches the depth of the hearts of the people of India. The bonds between Africa and India are forged in the furnace of our independent struggles. India has stood for the equality and dignity of the people of Africa. For the countries of Africa, we led the charge in the fight against apartheid and in the fight against colonialism. In the modern day we see that India continues to play a major role in the development of African nations. India has always been ready to share its democratic experience, its agricultural expertise, its capacity building potential, its healthcare institutions, its peacekeepers, etc. with our friends and partners in Africa," Rajamony said.

"The President's other connections with Africa, so to speak, is - one, he attended the Commonwealth Summit in Auckland, New Zealand, which played a big role in the expulsion of Nigeria following a coup in which Nelson Mandela was a big star. He has written about it in great detail in his memoirs. He signed the WTO agreement in Marrakesh in 1995. The President also incidentally visited South Africa in 1994 as Commerce Minister when trade relations were restored. India broke trade relations with South Africa in 1946 and after that it was the President as Commerce Minister who visited South Africa and inaugurated a big exhibition of Indian products and signed the necessary agreements for restoring normal trade relations with the South African country," he added.

During the visit, Rajamony said that the President will be accompanied by an MOS as well as a multi party delegation of four members of parliament. The details are yet to be finalized, he said.