New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set for a five-nation visit likely beginning 2 July, which will include Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Brazil and Namibia, ThePrint has learnt.
A source familiar with the matter said that the Prime Minister’s visit is set to begin with a visit to Ghana, followed by the visit to three countries in South America and the Caribbean, before ending in Namibia.
The five-nation visit coincides with the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit, which is being hosted in Rio de Janeiro on 6-7 July. Modi is likely to travel to Brasília, the Brazilian capital city, for a bilateral meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“The focus of the visit is strengthening India’s ties with Africa, as well as with the largest economies in South America. There is a strong Indian diaspora connection with Trinidad and Tobago,” the source said with regards to the visit.
The source added that with Ghana, there are long-standing ties, and a key area for talks will be the development partnership. Argentina and Brazil are two of the largest economies in South America. Modi met with Presidents Lula and Javier Milei of Argentina on the margins of the G20 leaders’ summit last year hosted by Brazil.
Cooperation between India and Namibia has grown in recent years, especially with the Cheetah reintroduction project. In 2022, Prime Minister Modi personally released cheetahs translocated from Namibia at Kuno in Madhya Pradesh—the first-of-its-kind intercontinental translocation of the carnivore species globally.
Ties between India and Trinidad and Tobago goes back almost two centuries, when the first ship carrying Indian indentured labourers landed on the shores of Trinidad on 30 May, 1845. Today the Indian community, specifically persons of Indian origin, make up roughly 40 percent of the total population of the Caribbean country today.
First visits to Ghana, Namibia and T&T
Modi’s visits to Ghana, Namibia and Trinidad and Tobago, will be his first. The last Indian Prime Minister to visit Accra was Narasimha Rao in November 1995. President Pranab Mukherjee did a state visit to Namibia in 2016, however, no Indian Prime Minister has visited the African nation yet.
India had been one of the earliest nations to raise the question over the independence of Namibia at the United Nations in 1946. The Southwest Africa’s People Organisation (SWAPO), which led Namibia’s independence movement, opened its first foreign mission in India in 1986. After Windhoek won its independence in 1990, India upgraded its mission in Namibia to that of a High Commission.
The last visit to Port of Spain by an Indian PM was by Manmohan Singh in 2009. The President of Trinidad and Tobago Christine Carla Kangaloo virtually addressed India’s Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas earlier this year. Kangaloo was slated to travel to Bhubaneshwar, but was unable to do so.
With Brazil and Argentina, India maintains a strategic partnership. Brazil and India are founding members of BRICS and have maintained a strong partnership across a number of areas, including supporting their respective bids for permanent membership to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Modi last visited Argentina in 2018 for the G20 leaders’ summit in November 2018. Milei, the ultraconservative President, assumed power in 2023 and has attempted to resuscitate its economy and rein in its inflation, pushing for closer trade with the US.
While Modi’s attendance at the BRICS summit will see a number of bilateral meetings with various leaders, the one meeting which is not expected is with President Xi Jinping of China. The Chinese President is unlikely to attend the summit, according to reports.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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