Address by H.E. Mr. Anand Sharma, Minister of State for External Affairs of India to the Executive Council of the African Union
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His Excellency Mr. Akwasi Osei-Adjei, Chairman of the Executive council of the African Union,
Excellencies,
Ladies & Gentlemen,
I thank you for this honour of consulting with you and sharing our conception~ of the India-Africa Partnership Forum.
Excellencies,
India and Africa have a historic relationship and this has grown into a sustainable partnership. From our struggle against colonialism and apartheid, we have emerged to jointly accept the challenges of a globalizing world. Wtle-ther we have to deal with threats to international peace and Security, the threat from international terrorism or the scourge of poverty, we believe that India and Africa traverse the same path, share the same values and cherish the same dreams.
We have a vision for a partnership with Africa for the 21st century.' ~his vision will take us beyond our strong bilateral relationships, our Close ties with regional economic communities and develop a new paradigm of cooperation which will take into account Africa's own aspirations for pan-African institutions and development programmes.
The theme for this Summit "Industrial Development of Africa" is perhaps truly significant for the next stage of the India-Africa partnership. We believe that like India, Africa too is moving forward on eradicating poverty and creating employment and a better life for the people and to become an important part of the emerging world trade order. India has a strong commitment to the development and industrialization of Africa. In this we engage through revolving lines of credit, capacity building programmes, small development projects under our aid assistance programmes, and support to objectives of African countries and regional organizations to fulfill the Millennium Development Goals. Our support "to Africa's industrialization has been consistent and valuable. Private sector investment from India is growing: in Africa and these investors contribute to the building of local capacities, the creation of employment, utilization of local resources and to intra-African trade as well as exports. We wish to strengthen this partnership through supporting the ability of African entities to utilize their resources better, to add value and to obtain a larger share from the emerging world trade~order. In this objective India would stand as a true partner with Africa.
Given our wide ranging cooperation and developing partnerships ranging from human resource development, health, capacity building, ICf utilization all of which are perhaps symbolized in the Pan-African e-Network Project. We hope to take this experience to a new level.
In this spirit, India has, for some time, been working on developing an Africa - wide dialogue. We have since also begun to develop programmes of· action with the regional economic communities such as SADC, COMESA, EAC, ECOWAS etc. The idea of an India-Africa Forum came up during the visit to India in December 2006 by H.E. Prof. Konare. A Joint Working Group was established between India and African Union, which has met twice already including with the Permanent Representatives of the member states, to work out the details of the Forum/Summit. Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen,
It gives me immense pleasure to convey that my Government has decided to host the India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi. This will be held between 4 & 9 April 2008 with the Senior Officials Meeting on 4th April, the Foreign Ministers' Meeting on in April and the Summit on 8th April.
The. Participation and the format of the Summit have been decided in consultation with the African Union Commission and the permanent representatives of the member states. This is the beginning of a process. How we take this forward will depend on the outcome of the Summit.
Thus we have invited the Chairs of the regional economic communities and their Secretaries General and the founding members of the NEPAD initiative besides the current and preceding Chairs of the African Union. We believe that this representative group which would have appropriate regional balance will provide the impetus for a fulsome discussion on how India could enhance its engagement with Africa in the future keeping in view Indian capacities and African aspirations.
It is also agreed that the formal outcome documents of the Summit would be a Declaration and an Action Plan. The draft Action Plan is under preparation and a draft has been circulated by the AU Commission to the member states. We await the response of the member states. The second document which will be a Decl<;lration will address broader areas of cooperation and our common views on regional and international issues including the fight against terrorism, climate change and WTO negotiations.
After the Annual Summit meeting of the African Union, the officials on both sides will meet for further discussions on the draft Declaration and the draft Plan of Action. The areas on which we have agreed to focus in the Action Plan will include human resources' and institutional capacity building and education, science & technology, agricultural productivity and food security, industrial growth including small & medium enterprises and minerals, development in the health sector, development of infrastructure, ICT and establishment or' judicial system with police and defence establishments under civilian control, etc.
The letters of· invitation have been issued to the invited governments and the Secretary Generals of the RECs. Details of the programme, logistics and other related issues on the India Africa Forum Summit have been provided by us through your Permanent Representative in Addis Ababa and your ambassadors in New Delhi. I would like to take this occasion to inform you all of this important initiative and express the hope that the invitees would honour us with their presence in New Delhi during this period.
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