The Hindu : Front Page : PM moots strategic ties with Nigeria

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 16, 2007
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PM moots strategic ties with Nigeria

Sandeep Dikshit

For this, cooperation will also have to go beyond tangibles to cover sustainable development

— Photo: PTI/ Atul Yadav

Warm welcome: Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Abuja on Monday. With them are their wives.

ABUJA: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday proposed a strategic partnership with Nigeria, India’s biggest trading partner and largest source of energy in Africa.

Speaking at the joint session of the Nigerian National Assembly, the Prime Minister outlined the parameters for a closer engagement with Nigeria and Africa.

With Nigeria, the primary focus has to go beyond economic growth to putting up a common front before international financial and trading systems to make them development-friendly, he said.

“It is a partnership to steer the global political and economic agenda towards addressing the legitimate concerns of the developing countries. The crushing burden of debt on the poorest of the poor, and barriers to trade in the form of restricted market access and distortions in trade subsidies need to be removed,” he said.

“Energy security is another fulcrum of the partnership between two countries but it too must transcend exploitation and trading of oil and gas to cover clean technologies and renewable sources of energy,” he said.

Both countries could also collaborate in research and development in efficiency of energy production, he suggested.

For the Indo-Nigerian alliance to flourish, cooperation would also have to go beyond tangibles to cover sustainable development, poverty alleviation and universal education.

Both countries being largely agrarian societies, the alliance would be incomplete without touching soil and water management, food processing and agricultural research.

With Africa, India envisaged a relationship that generated trust. With that end in mind, India was not only looking at investment possibilities but also initiatives that strengthened the capabilities and capacities of the African people, the Prime Minister said.

The issue would be in sharper focus and debated in-depth at the maiden India-Africa Forum Summit to be hosted in New Delhi in April 2008 .

While continuing to extend assistance to Africans to make them self-sufficient in intellectual capital and human resources, India wished to learn from the work of African environmentalists who have redefined the concept of sustainable development to include human and women’s rights and democracy, noted Dr. Singh.

“We will share our experiences with African countries on holistic approaches to development. It has been our experience that the strengthening of local self-government institutions that promote democracy is vital to bringing about inclusive growth.

“India also wished to seek commonality of approach on issues such as terrorism, nuclear disarmament, proliferation and trafficking of small arms and narcotics,” the Prime Minister said.

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