External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar will be on a two-nation tour of African countries, South Africa and Namibia, from June 1 to June 6, as per an official statement from the Ministry of External Affairs. The EAM will be in South Africa from June 1 to June 3 to participate in the BRICS Foreign Ministers meeting in Cape Town, the statement said.
The BRICS is the grouping of the five largest developing countries of the world— Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
Here’s the complete itinerary
EAM S Jaishankar will be attending the BRICS Foreign Ministers meeting from June 1 to June 3 in Cape Town.
Apart from attending the BRICS meeting, he will also hold a bilateral meeting with the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa, Naledi Pandor.
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Jaishankar will also call on the President of South Africa and he is likely to hold bilateral meetings with other BRICS foreign ministers. He will also be a part of the 'Friends of BRICS' meeting.
The External Affairs Minister may also hold a bilateral talk with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang, which would mark the third meeting between the two leaders so far in 2023.
Jaishankar has already met his Chinese counterpart twice this year, at the G20 meeting of foreign ministers in March and again in Goa at the SCO foreign ministers meeting in May.
Both India and China are developing their engagements with Africa in the recent past. China has contributed towards Africa's infrastructure, mining, oil and natural gas sectors for several years now and India has worked to provide training, education and capacity-building programmes, as per news agency ANI.
On his visit, Jaishankar is also likely to meet Sergey Lavrov, his Russian counterpart who has been calling for joint efforts by BRICS countries against the so-called “neo-colonial policies” of the West.
He is also slated to have an interaction with the Indian diaspora in Cape Town, the MEA said.
The Indian EAM's visit to South Africa and Namibia aims to strengthen the bilateral relations between India and the two countries. Jaishankar’s visit to Namibia will be the first by an External Affairs Minister of India.
The MEA statement also mentioned that Jaishankar will co-chair the inaugural session of the joint commission meeting with the Namibian deputy prime minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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