New Delhi, April 23 (IANS). South Africa’s High Commissioner to India Anil Sooklal said that the upcoming India-Africa Summit is very important to create a new path of cooperation between the two sides.
South African High Commissioner Anil Sooklal said this will be a key event to create a new blueprint for India-Africa cooperation.
In an interview with news agency IANS, Sooklal said India and Africa will discuss important areas of cooperation at the summit in May, including global governance, reforms in the multilateral system including the United Nations, UNSC, Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as common security challenges such as terrorism. He reminded that India was among the first countries to help Africa during the Covid challenge.
He said, “I think it is very important for India and Africa to come together. Of course, the African continent and India have strong historical relations going back many centuries. But, in recent times, I think the inauguration of the first India-Africa Forum Summit in 2008, followed by the second in 2011 and the third in 2015, which I attended as part of the South African delegation, has set a template for India-Africa cooperation. I The upcoming summit is probably going to be very important in creating a new path of cooperation between the African continent and India. Of course, it has been a decade since the last summit, one of which is that the summit has not happened before. India is in a very different place than it was a decade ago, one of the fastest growing economies. It’s the economy.”
South Africa’s High Commissioner Anil Sooklal said, “The African continent is also growing rapidly. We have common challenges, challenges related to our development. We have common expectations about what we want to see for our countries and our people on the continent and the same is the case with India. I think this summit will focus on many such areas, taking the previous summit forward, I think you will see continuity in important areas of cooperation. We will focus on the area of global governance, reforming the multilateral system, including the United Nations, the Security Council, the Bretton Woods Institutions and the WTO in the multilateral realm, addressing our common security challenges, including the issue of terrorism that we also experience on the African continent, but also working on development initiatives, particularly in a number of areas where India and Africa have worked together over the last decade. This will include education and skills development.”
He further said, “In the last summit, India had put forward 50,000 scholarships for Africa and till date, more than 85,000 scholarships and skill training programs have been given to the African continent. And I think this summit will build on that because I believe as we are seeing in the case of India, education and skills are very important for the development of any country and this is one such area. is where I believe India can be a vital partner in helping us build the skills, help us educate our very young population to take advantage of the huge opportunities that the African continent has to offer.”
He praised India’s growth in the pharmaceutical sector and health equipment and pointed out that the health infrastructure in Africa is weak. He said that industrialization is necessary for the development of Africa. India can be a great partner for the African continent in this domain. India can work with Africa in essential sectors, because the African continent is rich in mineral resources.
The High Commissioner said, “In the health sector, India is a leader in the global pharmaceutical sector, health equipment and the health infrastructure in Africa is very weak, as we saw during Covid. India was one of the first countries to come to the aid of Africa during the Covid challenge and I believe this is an area where we can find synergy, where we can work together for mutual benefit, to help Africa in its health and pharmaceutical sectors and of course, Can help in farming.”
Referring to the developments in India’s agriculture sector, he said, “Farming is one of India’s strengths and Africa has 60 per cent of the global cultivable land, yet Africa is a net food-importing continent. How can we use new technology like India to bring more of our farmers into the mainstream and modernize farming for the benefit of the continent, so that food security can be ensured for our people, and we can become a big part of our respective economies? “There is great promise in terms of growing our economy. We have seen what DPI has done for India in terms of empowering the poor and lifting more than 250 million people out of extreme poverty.”
High Commissioner Anil Sooklal further said, “I believe this is an area where we can work with India to strengthen African countries. Africa has been unlucky because we have not really jumped on board the Third Industrial Revolution. We should largely start from that. Industrialization is the key to Africa’s development, but I believe that today, with new technology, Africa can move forward rapidly in the future and India is in this domain.” “We can be a great partner. These are some important sectors. Africa is a very rich country in terms of minerals and mineral resources, especially now when there is so much focus on minerals needed for new technology.”
He further said, “I believe that India can together with Africa take advantage of its huge potential not only in traditional minerals but also in essential minerals and work together for our mutual benefit. Infrastructure, this is another area where wherever you go in India, you see infrastructure built, ports, airports, rail, roadways and digital infrastructure. Africa needs this. We are also paying a lot of attention to this area. So, I This is another very important area where we can work together in the future. Therefore, I am confident that all these areas will be given the due attention to strengthen this partnership. And I believe that this summit will also create a new blueprint for India-Africa cooperation.
India, together with the African Union Commission, will host the 4th India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi on 31 May 2026. On South Africa’s participation in the upcoming India-Africa Summit, the High Commissioner said, “We are still finalizing it, but I am sure that we will have very high-level representation with a very strong business delegation for the Business Summit. We see this as a great opportunity to strengthen the partnership not only at the continental and India level, but also at the bilateral level between South Africa and India.”
–IANS
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