Rathore meets Mugabe, extends invitation for Africa summit

Union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has extended an invitation to Zimbabwe president Robert Gabriel Mugabe for the 3rd India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi in October, an official release said on Friday.

The minister of state for information and broadcasting met the Zimbabwe president as a special envoy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and personally extended the invitation for the summit.

Accepting the invitation, Mugabe said he hoped that the Indian prime minister will visit Zimbabwe in the near future.

Rathore also met Zimbabwe Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe S. Mumbengegwi and invited him to the summit on behalf of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Speaking after the meetings, Rathore said the summit would be historic as India had taken the lead to invite leaders of all African nations with whom it had long cherished ties.

Emphasising the importance of India-Africa engagement, the minister said that India's friendship with African nations goes back a long way.

He said India and Africa emerged from a similar colonial past and faced similar concerns of sustainable development and inclusive economic growth.

He said both India and Africa shared common views and concerns on issues related to global governance, climate change, World Trade Organisation and Bretton Woods Institutions.

According to the release, the minister said in his discussions that India had played a critical role in recent years in forging partnerships with the African continent on issues that empower the region.

These include support to African countries through scholarships, training, capacity building efforts and developmental assistance.

Lines of credit and grants have also been extended to African nations and efforts had substantially strengthened the south-south cooperation between the region and India, the release added.

The India-Africa Forum Summit would be held on October 29. It would be preceded by a meeting of foreign ministers on October 27 and a meeting of senior officers on October 26.