00:00Honourable Prime Minister, there will be delegation-level talks
00:03during which the bilateral relations will be reviewed
00:08and also discuss various ways to strengthen and deepen bilateral relations.
00:14Honourable Prime Minister will have a one-on-one meeting with his counterpart.
00:18Then there will be a banquet dinner in honour of Honourable Prime Minister.
00:23The next day, Prime Minister will be addressing the Parliament
00:27and he also will be interacting with the Indian community there,
00:31which is about 15,000 in number.
00:36Let me put this in the context.
00:41The President John Ramani Mahama has just assumed office
00:48in about January of this year after a landslide victory,
00:52which is why the visit assumes importance.
00:54Early in his tenure, Honourable Prime Minister will be visiting Ghana,
00:59so it will help in the continuity as well as deepening the relationship
01:04and to discuss various ways to further strengthen the relationship.
01:10President Mahama is no stranger.
01:13He has been to India in the past,
01:15particularly for the India-Africa Forum Summit in 2015,
01:18and there have been various occasions that two leaders have met in the past as well.
01:25India's relations with Ghana are historical.
01:28In the seven decades of a relationship, it has evolved to multifaceted.
01:33We took up the cause of Ghana in the UN,
01:39and we have maintained close relationship in the multilateral forum
01:51on various issues that are important for the Global South.
01:56Both the countries will work towards boosting the economic cooperation,
02:03and this is very important to note,
02:05that Ghana is undergoing a deep economic restructuring,
02:11especially it has undergone the IMF conditionalities almost 17 times.
02:17So the economic agenda will dominate the talks.
02:21You know, the bilateral trade between India and Ghana is about $3 billion.
02:27In favor of Ghana, because of the large imports of gold,
02:32our investments in Ghana are about $2 billion,
02:35both private sector-wise, which is about $1 billion.
02:39And the second half, we have lines of credit and the bias credit activities and projects have been undertaken.
02:48We have a very strong cooperation in the capacity building under ITEC,
02:53and that is continuing to be stronger and deepen.
02:59During the visit, there will be few focus items.
03:03It will be agriculture,
03:04where the Ghana leader, the president, is keen to engage with India.
03:10He is also keen on the vaccine development,
03:13creating a vaccine hub in Ghana,
03:15but not just Ghana, but also the West Africa context.
03:19Defense cooperation will become an important item on the agenda,
03:23and the critical minerals and the digital public infrastructure.
03:29A few MOUs, Memorandum of Understandings, are likely to be concluded,
03:36but we still do not have clarity as to which of those,
03:39but our understanding is that negotiations are still ongoing in Ghana with our team.
03:47We have most probably in the Joint Commission,
03:50which will be renewed,
03:52traditional medicine in Ayurveda,
03:54the CEP, Cultural Exchange Program,
03:59renewed,
04:00and standards,
04:02but we will get details closer to the visit
04:05when it is being fine-tuned.
04:08Thereafter, I am going to jump now
04:10to the last leg of UNRUAL Prime Minister's visit to Namibia,
04:14because that is another country that I deal with.
04:19UNRUAL Prime Minister will visit Namibia on 9th July,
04:23and this visit is also important.
04:26It is coming after 27 years.
04:30And the current president,
04:32who is Netumbu Nandi Ndwaita,
04:37has assumed office in March this year,
04:41which is why the visit happening so early in our tenure
04:44is very useful to renew the relationship
04:49and at the same time deepen our economic engagement with Namibia.
04:55The program will have a ceremonial welcome.
04:59UNRUAL Prime Minister will pay homage to Dr. Sam Najuma.
05:04There will be delegation-level talks,
05:06one-on-one discussions,
05:07and he will also address the parliament.
05:11The substance of the relationship is, again,
05:14as you know, that India and Namibia
05:16have been a very strong relationship for a very long time.
05:21Historical context, the independence struggle.
05:23We recognized Namibia long before it got independence.
05:28We took up its cause in the UNGA in 1946
05:33and also allowed to set up a diplomatic mission in India in 1986,
05:40even before it got independence in 1990.
05:44The bilateral relations are very wide-ranging.
05:48Let me focus on the trade here.
05:49It is 600 million, marginally in favor of India.
05:54Our investments are about 800 million,
05:57mostly in mineral resources like zinc and diamond processing.
06:03You all are aware that India
06:07had taken a few cheetahs from Namibia
06:14and relocated to Kuno National Park.
06:16That phase had very successfully been implemented.
06:22In the development cooperation area,
06:25the capacity building,
06:27defense cooperation,
06:28defense training of the personnel of Namibia,
06:31the Center for Excellence of the Information Technology
06:34that we have set it up.
06:35Then, most importantly,
06:37what's going to happen during the visit
06:38is the unified payment interoperability.
06:43The technology agreement being signed
06:45has already been entered
06:47between the Central Bank of Namibia
06:48and the NPCI.
06:51So, this will take forward
06:52and that, we believe,
06:53is a very important development in our relationship.
06:57Namibia is a very resource-rich country.
07:01It has natural resources of uranium,
07:04copper, cobalt,
07:06rare eggs in large numbers,
07:07lithium, graphite, cantalum,
07:09and all of these are of interest to us.
07:12In the recent times,
07:13Namibia has also discovered new oil fields.
07:15There, again,
07:16going to be a broad understanding
07:17on the partnership in hydrocarbons.
07:20Namibia is also keen
07:22to engage with us in agriculture and pharma,
07:25and we will be exploring
07:27India's low-cost solutions
07:29like the DPI,
07:30Jannaushidhi,
07:31traditional medicine,
07:32Ayurveda.
07:32You have to understand
07:33in a broader context
07:35how important it is partnering Africa.
07:38We have done the India-Africa Forum Summit 3
07:40in 2015.
07:42We will be very soon doing
07:43India-Africa Forum Summit 4.
07:46And in that context,
07:48engaging with Africa
07:49with both individual countries
07:50and the EU
07:51are very important.
07:53Africa in recent time
07:54has also evolved.
07:55It's become more aspirational.
07:57It wants manufacturing
07:58to happen in the country,
07:59and it wants value addition
08:01to happen in the country.
08:03The Africa-wide free trade continent
08:04is another great opportunity
08:06to engage with Africa.
08:07So we have to keep this
08:08at the back of our mind
08:09dealing with Africa.
08:11There are lots of opportunities
08:12and we need to look at this
08:15with more keenness.
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