Maputo: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar Friday called on Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi and discussed ways to expand the bilateral development corporation and committed to work for the advancement of the partnership in areas like trade, investments and defence.
Jaishankar, who is here on his first official visit, also co-chaired the 5th India-Mozambique Joint Commission Meeting with his counterpart Veronica Macamo.
“Honoured to call on President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique. Conveyed the personal greetings of PM @narendramodi,” Jaishankar tweeted after the meeting.
“Heartwarming to hear his fond memories of his time in Ahmedabad. Appreciate his deep interest in deepening our cooperation,” Jaishankar said referring to President Nyusi’s stay in Gujarat for his studies.
“Valued his guidance on further developing our relationship. In line with PM Modi’s vision, India will respond to Mozambican priorities. Committed to work for advancements in trade and investments, defence, development cooperation, health and people-to-people ties,” Jaishankar said.
During the Joint Commission Meeting, Jaishankar and Macamo took stock of the progress made in a wide spectrum of areas of bilateral cooperation, including trade and investment, agriculture, energy, railways, health, education, development cooperation and defence and explored new avenues to intensify it further.
“Exchanged perspectives on our solid cooperation in the multilateral fora. Congratulated Mozambique on its successful UNSC Presidency month,” Jaishankar tweeted.
“Agreed to work together to voice the concerns of Global South, especially on issues like terrorism and climate change,” he said.
During the press availability after meeting Nyusi, Jaishankar said he had a very good meeting with the president.
He said the discussions with the President were mainly focused on our bilateral cooperation.
India is an important development partner of Mozambique, he said.
“I was very happy that many of the projects that we have done, including railways, agriculture, electricity…We had discussions on how to expand our development corporation,” he said.
They also discussed some ideas in the field of health.
The two leaders also talked about how to increase railway cooperation and the work done by the two nations in the past in terms of rural electrification and water.
“With the President and I also exchanged views on the security and defence cooperation between our two countries. India is a strong and reliable partner of Mozambique in this regard,” Jaishankar said.
“We have been supporting the operations of Mozambique’s defence forces because we both face a common challenge of terrorism,” he added.
He said there are large Indian investments in the country by Indian companies.
He assured the President that India is very invested in the growth and development of Mozambique.
“We are very confident that we will overcome the challenges which have been there in recent years,” he stressed.
And on the political side, he said India was very appreciative of the Mozambique President’s participation in the Voice of Global South Summit in January as India takes forward its G-20 presidency.
“We look to countries like Mozambique to strengthen our voice in the world platform,” the minister said, adding “our political cooperation in the United Nations has been strong”.
The two sides agreed to continue working very closely with each other. Jaishankar said he has regard for President Nyusi who studied in India.
“…We see him as someone who studied in India, the same state Prime Minister Modi is from, the same state that I represent in the Indian Parliament. So we had some nice words, some good memories of his stay there. It was something which was very warm, he conveyed his best wishes to Prime Minister Modi,” Jaishankar said, adding he also conveyed Prime Minister Modi’s good wishes to the President.
On a question, he said the two nations already cooperate in a fairly broad range of areas.
“So, so there are already areas but I assured the President from Prime Minister Modi’s side, whatever priorities of the government of Mozambique are, we will respond,” Jaishankar said.
“This is India’s way of doing partnership. We ask our partner what is your priority. So whatever is the priority, we look at that.
India he said believes that after COVID, health is a big priority.
“Water is a priority, electricity is a big priority. So these are the same challenges that we have in India also,” he said, adding India will be very happy to share its capabilities with the brothers and sisters of Mozambique.
Jaishankar also visited Nacional Fabrica Nacional de Medicamentos in Maputo.
“Thank Minister of Health Dr Armindo Tiago for joining. Impressed by the cutting edge technology & state of the art facilities. India’s transfer of technology & skilled manpower is making a difference in Mozambique,” he tweeted.
PTI