India`s trade with Africa in excess of $100 billion is fairly evenly balanced: EAM
External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar has said India's trade with Africa today is in excess of $100 billion and is fairly evenly balanced. He said ‘27 African least developed countries (LDC) benefit from our duty-free tariff preferences and our expectation is that this trade will easily double in the coming decade. It's not just trade, India is among the top five investors in Africa. Our estimated capital today is in excess of $80 billion.’
EAM noted that in the last decade, a bulk of Indian embassies have also opened in Africa. And not just Embassies, the first Indian Institute of Technology abroad opened in Africa. The first Forensic Sciences University abroad opened in Africa. He said ‘so I don't need to stress to you today what is the importance that we attach, not just to our relationship but to the promise of those ties that we are actually betting on your future as well. And we see in our relationship actually a very, very powerful force that would rebalance the global polity, which in our view has been skewed over the last two centuries’.
Talking on the African Union's permanent membership in the G20, Jaishankar said ‘this is something that has been deliberated for many years. This was not the first G20 when it came up for discussion, but we were very determined that unlike previous G20s, this will not end with a discussion, that we were very clear we will have an outcome, and as G20 chair, we took that lead, very confident that once somebody determinedly takes that lead and puts it firmly before the international community, it is something that was bound to happen, and we were glad we were proved right.’
