PM Modi to make first visit to Namibia following repopulation of Cheetahs into Kuno Tiger Reserve

ANI

New Delhi, June 30, 2025 (ANI): During a special briefing by the Ministry of External Affairs, Secretary of Economic Relations, Dammu Ravi, outlined the key agendas during the PM's visit to five countries- Ghana, Trinidad & Tobago, Argentina, Brazil and Namibia. The Secretary said, "PM will visit Namibia on 9 July. This visit is important as it comes after 27 years... The trade is $600 million, marginally in favour of India. The investments are $800 million... India had taken a few cheetahs from Namibia and repopulated the Kuno National Park. That place has been implemented very successfully in the development cooperation area, capacity building, defence cooperation, and defence training of the personnel of Namibia, the centre for excellence in information technology that we set up."

Transcript

00:00Honorable Prime Minister will visit Namibia on 9th July and this visit is also important.

00:07It's coming after 27 years and the current president who is Netumbu Nandi Nwaita has

00:18assumed office in March this year which is why the visit happening so early in our tenure

00:25is very useful to renew the relationship at the same time deepen our economic engagement

00:33with Namibia.

00:36The program will have a ceremonial welcome.

00:40Honorable Prime Minister will pay homage to Dr. Sam Najuma.

00:44There will be delegation level talks, one-on-one discussions and he will also address the parliament.

00:51The substance of the relationship is again, as you know, that India and Namibia have been

00:58a very strong relationship for a very long time.

01:02Historical context, the independence struggle.

01:05We recognize Namibia long before it got independence.

01:09We took up its cause in the UNGA in 1946 and also allowed to set up a diplomatic mission

01:17in India in 1986, even before it got independence in 1990.

01:24The bilateral relations are very wide-ranging.

01:28Let me focus on the trade here.

01:31It is 600 million marginally in favor of India.

01:35Our investments are about 800 million, mostly in mineral resources like zinc and diamond processing.

01:42We all are aware that India had taken a few cheetahs from Namibia and relocated to Kuno National Park.

01:58That phase had very successfully been implemented.

02:02In the development cooperation area, the capacity building, defense cooperation,

02:09defense training of the personnel of Namibia, the Center for Excellence of the Information Technology

02:14that we have set it up.

02:16Then, most importantly, what's going to happen during the visit is the unified payment interoperability.

02:23The technology agreement being signed has already been entered between the Central Bank of Namibia and the NPCI.

02:31So, this will take forward and that, we believe, is a very important development in our relationship.

02:38Namibia is a very resource-rich country.

02:42It has natural resources of uranium, copper, cobalt, rare eggs in large numbers, lithium, graphite, tantalum.

02:50And all of these are of interest to us.

02:52In the recent times, Namibia has also discovered new oil fields.

02:56There, again, going to be a broad understanding on the partnership in hydrocarbons.

03:01Namibia is also keen to engage with us in agriculture and pharma.

03:06And we will be exploring India's low-cost solutions like DPI, Geno Shirdi, traditional medicine, Ayurveda.

03:13You have to understand, in a broader context, how important is partnering Africa.

03:18We have done the India-Africa Forum Summit 3 in 2015.

03:22We will be very soon doing India-Africa Forum Summit 4.

03:26And in that context, engaging with Africa with both individual countries and the EU are very important.

03:33Africa in recent time has also evolved.

03:36It has become more aspirational.

03:38It wants manufacturing to happen in the country.

03:40And it wants value addition to happen in the country.

03:44The Africa-wide free trade continent is another great opportunity to engage with Africa.

03:48So we have to keep this at the back of our mind, dealing with Africa.

03:51There are lots of opportunities.

03:52And we need to look at this with more keenness.

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