Third India-African Forum Summit to be held in October

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Wednesday said the third India-Africa Forum Summit will be held in the national capital between October 26 and 30 this year.

"We will have the third India-Africa Forum Summit later this year in consultation with the African Union Commission and the dates that have been worked out for the entire summit are 26th to 30th of October," Secretary (West) Navtej Singh Sarna said.

"Exact venues, timings etc. we will tell you in due course," he added.

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Detailing the schedule of the India-African Forum Summit, Sarna said the meeting of senior officials will take place on October 26 and would be followed by a meeting of foreign ministers the next day.

Sarna said heads of state and government would be arriving on October 28 and the summit would take place next day. He added that this would be followed by bilateral interactions on October 30.

The Secretary (West) further said that the India-Africa Forum Summit mechanism had been put into place to give a framework on New Delhi's engagement with Africa in the 21st century.

"The first India-Africa Forum Summit was held in 2008 in India and the second was held in 2011 in Addis Ababa. So, this will be the third one. The difference in this one is going to be that in order to fully reflect the way we are engaging the continent, we would be inviting all 54 members of Africa. Unlike in the previous summits when the engagement was with a limited number according to a formula worked out by the AU, this would be a first in that sense also," Sarna said.

"To give some idea of the relationship and what we are trying to strengthen and build up in the last ten years or so... ...We have actually made available a soft loan in terms of lines of credit of more than USD seven billion to our African partners and that forms nearly two-third of all lines of credit given by India in the last ten years," he added.

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The Secretary (West) further said that a number of capacity-building institutions have also been set up and are at various stages of implementation, besides the loans.

"Three vocational training centres have already been set up in Ethiopia, Burundi and Rawanda and several others are in the pipeline nearing completion," he added.