Good evening friends. Thank you for patiently waiting for us.
We just concluded a very historic summit. It is the third India-Africa
Forum Summit but it is the first of its kind. This is the first time that
we have had the presence of leaders from all 54 African countries in New
Delhi and of course, the presence of the chairperson of the African Union
Commission. You all have been following this Summit closely, so
I don’t need to go into details of all the statements that were made. I am sure
you already have copies of all the statements. I am just to say that
all the Heads of State of Governments, Vice Presidents as well as the
Chairperson of the African Union Commission spoke today besides, of course, the
Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi. So, we (140) actually
had 43 speakers today. I will just give you the programmatic
detail. Besides the 43 speakers, we had the (160) formal
adoption of the Political Declaration as well as the India-Africa Strategic
Framework of Cooperation. There was also the release of the special stamp
to commemorate the Summit as well as the release of the special coin
which has been issued by the Government of India to commemorate this
historic Summit. This was done by the Prime Minister together with
the Chairperson of the AU President Mugabe of Zimbabwe, the Chairperson of the
AU Commission Ms. Zuma and, of course, the Finance Minister, External Affairs
Minister and Minister of State for External Affairs were present.
Besides, Secretary (Spot show) presented this
stamp.
This
concludes the formal part of the Summit. There is a banquet by the
President this evening for (280) which the leaders
will now be reaching. Of course, parallel to all this, there have been a string
of bilateral meetings, both at the Prime Ministerial level as well as at the
Foreign Minister level and there have been a (320) few
calls also at the President level. So, we will give you these details by
and by. But what is important is that you already have the Prime
Minister’s Statement and I am sure it has already been reported at length. The
major announcements that have been made as part of the comprehensive
perspective that we have taken on Africa are built into the rest of
the Statement. So, I would request you not only to look at the last
paragraph but to go back and see the depth of engagement on which those
announcements are pegged. This is also (420) the
spirit behind the two documents which will not be available with you. If
you see the Declaration, it reflects the common themes that we have heard
throughout the day today and essentially the theme that both Africa and
India are at a very important stage in terms of not only their own development
but how they engage with each other (480) for
mutual benefit. Clearly, this is a historic stepping-stone to a greater achievement.
The context of the Summit is important. This
is India and Africa engaging like never before in
numbers. It comes few months after the adoption of Agenda 2063 by the
African leaders. It comes just a month before COP21, something which is
of critical interest, not only to India but to African countries, whether they
are desert or semi-desert countries, whether they are small island States,
whether (560) they are countries which are at a
certain stage of development, that if they have to go green they need finances
and the technology and the means of development and the assistance for
that. So, there are all sorts of perspectives merging into the climate
change debate which you have heard about today. It comes just a month
before the WTO meeting in Nairobi. Trade has been a major theme that
we have heard throughout the day. It is not (640) only
the India-Africa trade which incidentally has doubled in the last 5 years and
multiplied manifold in the last 15 years to reach a very impressive figure of
about USD 72 billion. So, how the world is moving towards an equitable
trade regime is something which is of very great importance.
The documents touch on many themes. They touch on (700) the
commonalities between India and Africa; they touch on the
priorities of sustainable development so that we are aligning our moves, our
priorities, and our means of implementation with what the UN has decided with
the cooperation of all of us as the sustainable development agenda 2030.
The documents also talk of major challenges. They talk of terrorism, and
the need to counter this in a broader context of peace and security.
Conflict is the enemy of development. Terrorism is the enemy of development.
So, when we are working together for development, we also have to work against
conflict, we (800) also have to work against
terrorism. So, there has been a call in the Declaration to work together
on all kinds of terrorism; there is no excuse, there should be zero tolerance
for terrorism. There has been reflection here as (840) to
how we engage together more in peace and security efforts, like peacekeeping at
which India has already been deeply engaged with Africa having participated in
11 peacekeeping operations there, and also in terms of strengthening the
African peacekeeping efforts. A greater gender consciousness is being
brought into peacekeeping. Gender consciousness brings me to the idea of
women empowerment which is again reflected in the documents. This is something
which is of tremendous importance to all of us. Energy is another area
which finds a lot of attention and focus and particularly renewable
energy.
There are also areas to which I would attract your attention and which
are of emerging interest to Africa, for instance, the blue economy and you
will (960) find that attention here, because there are not
only the island countries but also the coastal countries. Africa, if
I (980) am not wrong, has about 26,000 kilometres
long coastline and the ocean is a huge asset in terms of providing energy, in
terms of sustainable fishery, in terms of biodiversity. It is also a
challenge in terms of maritime security. Engagement
of India and Africa on maritime security has been extensive.
We have done anti-piracy patrols by the Indian Navy for years very
successfully. We provided protection where necessary to coastal
States. We have built up capacity in several African countries by
equipment, training and cooperation to build up the inherent maritime security
capabilities of these countries. We have done hydrographic surveys for
several countries. This is something which is a clearly felt
need. Let me tell you that the entire approach behind the documents has
been ‘let us work together in areas where we both want to work (1120) together;
let us work together in areas which are our strengths.’ So, it is a
partnership of mutual benefit based on mutual strengths.
Capacity building is a very important area you heard this morning.
Hon. Prime Minister of India announced that in the next 5 years,
there will be 50,000 scholarships. With each of our African
interlocutors, there has been this felt need that India should
provide more training. We do it virtually, we do it physically. We have a
pan-African network which the Prime Minister announced would be expanded.
We already have it in 48 countries and we had it successfully for few
years. It is both for education and health. So, within these 50,000
scholarships, you will see the core of eventual India-Africa virtual university.
You heard the other announcements by the Prime Minister and this is
again (1260) reflected in these documents.
The Prime Minister announced USD 10 billion of fresh concessional lines of
credit over the (1280) next 5 years. This follows up on
what we have already done. We have already approved about USD 7.4 billion
since the first Summit and USD 9 billion if you go back 10
years. Out of that, we are already working on 137 projects in 41
countries. So, now the fresh lines of credit- what would they be used
for? You will find that reflection in the Strategic Framework.
There is a need for infrastructure building. A repeated need we have
heard is for rural electrification. As the Prime Minister said, when the
sun sets, hundreds and thousands of homes
in India and Africa go dark. So, we have to work
together. There is a need for solar electrification; there is a (1400) need
for building hospitals; there is a need for industry and creation of
jobs. Then there are sugar plants. We have been asked by many
countries, “We have sugar; we can’t process it. Can we work together to
set up (1440) sugar plants and create jobs?” Creation
of jobs is critical. You see 65 per cent of population of Africa is
under 35. This is something which is the same virtually
in India. So, when the Prime Minister said that one-third of
humanity was represented in that room today, it means that a large
preponderance of that one-third humanity is very young and they need
jobs. So, the industry and the creation of employment will be the
purposes of this concessional credit. You also heard of the announcements
of USD 600 million as grant. This is essentially institution
building. We have (1540) several institutions
already being worked on and the next grants will go for the expansion of some
of these institutions where we have felt that the money budgeted for them was
not enough. So, we have to put more money as well as a USD 100 million
India-Africa development fund which is part of this larger grant, which will be
(1600) development projects we have agreed with our bilateral
and African partners, which they would like to see on a regional basis or on a
continental basis. (1626)
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