Indian Economy News

External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar chairs consultative meeting on India–Africa ties in New Delhi

India’s External Affairs Minister, Dr. S. Jaishankar, led a Consultative Committee session on India-Africa relations in New Delhi, stressing that India is looking towards Africa with increasing strategic depth in its diplomatic engagements. In the deliberations, India’s engagement with Africa was discussed in various domains ranging from trade and investments, Lines of Credit, grants, capacity development, defence collaboration, and cooperation in regional and multilateral fora. Special importance was accorded to education, skills training, and institutional capacity building, which is rooted in the development partnership model of cooperation that India has followed with Africa for decades. This consultation underscores the rising significance of Africa within the broader Indian foreign policy framework, especially considering growing collaboration between the two sides in areas like supply chains, digital public infrastructure, health, agriculture, and maritime security. The renewed consultative process is expected to further strengthen political trust, development financing, and business-to-business linkages between India and African economies.

In his social media post after the meeting, Dr. Jaishankar highlighted the fact that such deliberations were a manifestation of the historical bonds between the two regions, along with the people-to-people bond, which forms the basis of civilisational and developmental nature of their relations. Such engagements are highly important for India, which is expanding its footprint in Africa by virtue of its capacity-building exercises, scholarships, technological cooperation, defence training programs, and development projects. It is hoped that enhanced coordination at the multilateral forums would further help coordinate efforts on key priorities like Global South priorities, trade reforms, food security, and climate change. The continued institutional dialogue is likely to support greater Indian investments, stronger export opportunities, and deeper strategic cooperation with African partners, strengthening India’s role as a trusted development partner across the continent over the medium term.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.