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PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe left Harare yesterday for New Delhi, India, to attend the third India-Africa Forum Summit, which will tackle various issues including finding ways of increasing trade and investment between India and Africa.
The African Union chairman will join over 40 other African leaders at the summit which is also expected to address challenges posed by climate change and food insecurity among other issues.
The five-day summit, which started yesterday with meetings of senior officials, will be followed by a meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers today and wind up with the Heads of State and Government summit on Wednesday.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he saw enormous opportunities for increased trade and investment between India and Africa.
He said the two sides were poised to experience rapid economic growth and development.
“The first and second summits didn’t involve the participation of all African countries and we see their involvement now as a serious indication of the desire of all parties to take the relations to new heights,” he told journalists ahead of the summit.
The India–Africa Forum Summit, the official platform for India-Africa relations, was first held in 2008 in New Delhi and only included 14 African countries chosen by the African Union.
The summit is being touted as India’s biggest diplomatic outreach involving delegates from a large number of African nations. Trade between India and Africa has grown exponentially over the past decade.
Indo-African trade volumes reached $ 53.3 billion in 2010 and $72 billion in 2013 and is expected to further go up to $90 billion by the end of 2015.
As of 2011, India has emerged as Africa’s fourth largest trade partner behind China, the European Union and the USA.
In Zimbabwe, India has made various investments and extended a number of loans in areas including mining, energy and infrastructure development. — New Ziana
Online Reporter