Abuja: India accords high priority to its strategic partnership with Nigeria and it will work towards boosting ties in a range of areas, including defence, energy and trade, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during his talks with Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Sunday.
In his televised opening remarks at the meeting, Modi identified terrorism, separatism, piracy and drug trafficking as major challenges and said the two countries will continue to work together to deal with them.
Modi arrived in Abuja early Sunday on the first trip to the country by an Indian prime minister after a gap of 17 years.
“We give high priority to our strategic partnership with Nigeria…I am confident that a new chapter in our ties will begin following our talks,” the prime minister said.
Modi also described the around 60,000-strong Indian expatriate community as a key pillar of India-Nigeria relations and thanked Tinubu for ensuring their welfare.
The prime minister also announced that India is sending 20 tonnes of relief supplies for Nigerian people hit by last month’s floods.
He also referred to the African Union becoming a permanent member of the G20 at the India-hosted summit of the grouping last year and described it as a significant outcome.
Before the delegation-level talks, Modi and Tinubu held one-on-one meeting at the Presidential Villa.
The prime minister was also accorded a ceremonial welcome.
Both sides are likely to ink a number of agreements following the delegation-level talks.
Modi is in Nigeria as part of a three-nation tour. From Abuja, he will travel to Brazil to attend the G20 summit. His last destination will be Guyana.
The India-Nigeria ties were elevated to the status of a “strategic partnership’ during then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the African nation in October 2007.
Nigeria has been a close partner of India for over six decades.
New Delhi established its diplomatic House in Lagos in November 1958, two years before Nigeria became independent in 1960.
The presence of a large Indian expatriate community of about 60,000, the largest in West Africa, adds value to the importance of the long-standing relationship between the two countries.
There are more than 200 Indian companies who have invested about USD 27 billion in all important manufacturing sectors and these companies are the second largest employers after the federal government, according to Indian officials.
India has emerged as a development partner of Nigeria on two fronts — by offering developmental assistance through concessional loans (USD 100 million) and by offering capacity-building training programmes.
