India committed to enhance ties with Africa: Tharoor

Betwa Sharma
United Nations, Oct 21 (PTI) India is committed to
enhance ties with African nations and will continue its
cooperation to boost infrastructure and technology development
in the continent, Minister of State for External Affairs
Shashi Tharoor has said.
"Priority areas of cooperation include infrastructure
development, capacity-building, agriculture, health and food
security and technology cooperation," Tharoor told the UN
General Assembly convened to discuss Africa's development.
"Trade across the Indian Ocean has linked us for hundreds
of years. For the people of India, Africa is also the land of
awakening of the father of our nation Mahatma Gandhi," the
Minister said.
He said that India was already contributing to Africa in
terms of investing in railways, IT, telecom and power.
"India has so far extended over 3 billion dollars of
concessional lines of credit to countries in Africa," he said,
adding that New Delhi would enhance the lines of credit for
Africa to USD 5.4 billion for the next five years.
The minister also declared that both regions would work
together over WTO issues such as cotton subsidies.
The General Assembly also studied the latest report of UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, New Partnership for Africa's
Development (NEPAD) that calls on the international community
to remove the sting of financial crisis and help the African
countries meet their Millennium Development Goals. MORE PTI BS
PMR


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