India’s prime minister on Thursday kicked off a four-nation African tour on a continent where China’s presence has been strong, including countries that haven’t been visited by an Indian leader in more than three decades.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip is meant to raise India’s profile in energy, trade and investment. He started in Mozambique, tweeting the news of his arrival in Portuguese, the official language: “Starting my tour of Africa with a visit to Mozambique.”
Modi goes next to South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya. India’s foreign ministry has described the four countries on the Indian Ocean as economic gateways to landlocked African states. Mozambique alone receives almost a quarter of India’s investment in Africa, according to India’s government.
Modi told reporters Thursday that India and Mozambique had “agreed to strengthen our defense and security relationship” as well as food security ties, but he gave few details.
He indicated India’s commitment to buy pulses from Mozambique. India has been trying to control the prices of pulses, a staple diet for millions of its poor, which have doubled in the past 18 months because of two successive drought years.
India also hopes to sign civil aviation agreements to introduce direct flights. No Indian airline has direct connections with Africa.
South Africa, which lists India as its sixth-largest trade partner, is another key stop for Modi.
He is expected to meet with the Indian community in South Africa, which has more than one million people of Indian origin. He’ll do the same in Kenya, with 80,000 people of Indian origin.
In Durban, South Africa, Modi is expected to take a brief train journey to commemorate Indian independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, whose experience with racism while living in South Africa as a young man shaped his resistance to segregation with nonviolent protest.
