Luanda (Angola), Nov 11 (PTI) President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday left for Botswana on the second leg of her two-nation State Visit after concluding her trip to Angola, where she held discussions on expanding the economic ties beyond the traditional energy business.
On the last day of her four-day State Visit to Angola, President Murmu attended the country’s 50th Independence Day celebrations before moving to the Angola International Airport, where she was given a ceremonial farewell.
Giving details of the visit, Secretary (Economics Relations), Ministry of External Affairs, Sudhakar Dalela, said Angola has come forward to partner with India in some “very critical” areas like renewable energy, wildlife conservation and management, and biofuels, which are “very significant” outcomes of the president’s visit to the African nation.
It was the first-ever visit by an Indian President to Angola.
During the visit, President Murmu held high-level talks with her Angolan counterpart Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco and oversaw the signing of two MoUs between the two countries.
Murmu told Lourenco that Indian companies were “capable of” exploration of critical and rare earth minerals as she stressed that this cooperation can also be extended to electric vehicles, semiconductor technology and artificial intelligence partnership. Speaking about defence collaboration, Murmu said India was a “trusted” defence equipment exporter and “we are ready to fulfil Angola’s defence-related requirements.” She also underlined the interest of Indian Oil and Gas companies in Angola through long-term purchase contracts.
Dalela said there was a “strong and positive momentum in the bilateral ties.” “Both leaders reviewed the existing bilateral cooperation in various sectors, including trade and investment, agriculture, health, infrastructure development, capacity building, defence, and development partnership.
“They discussed ways to further strengthen and expand our cooperation in these sectors with a shared commitment to sustainable growth and mutual prosperity,” Dalela said.
Angola, the secretary said, has agreed to join the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) and the Global Biofuel Alliance (GBA), two initiatives led by India. IBCA focuses on conserving seven big cat species and their habitats, and also promotes the sharing of best practices, funding, research, and expertise to support conservation. The GBA aims to accelerate the development and adoption of sustainable biofuels as part of the clean energy transition.
It was established during India’s G20 presidency in 2023 in New Delhi, and there are seven nations as its members till now.
“We are very happy that Angola has joined these two initiatives during this visit,” Dalela said.
The secretary said that during the visit of the President of Angola to India in May this year, the country had agreed to join the International Solar Alliance (ISA) as well.
Murmu also assured the Angolan leadership that there were “unlimited” possibilities to strengthen bilateral relations in various sectors, including energy security, diamond processing, agriculture, petroleum refining and critical minerals exploration.
She will be in Botswana for three days and leave for Delhi on Thursday. PTI NES ZH ZH
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