New Delhi, Oct 15 :
Seeking to expand India’s footprint and forge closer ties with Africa, the Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu concluded his tour to Comoros and Sierra Leone and returned to Delhi today.
It was the first-ever visit by such a high-level Indian dignitary to Comoros, an archipelago situated off the Southeast coast of Africa and to Sierra Leone. Shri Naidu was accompanied by Shri Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Union Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Shri Ramvichar Netam, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and senior officials.
Upon Shri Naidu’s arrival at Moroni, the capital of Comoros, on October 10, the President of the Union of Comoros, Mr. Azali Assoumani broke the protocol to personally receive Shri Naidu at the airport.
In his first engagement in Comoros, the Vice President addressed the Indian Diaspora and urged them to join in scripting New India’s growth story along with three other Ds—Democracy, Demand and Demographic Dividend. He also invited the Indian diaspora of Comoros to attend the next Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas of 2021.
On October 11, the President of Comoros, in an extraordinary gesture of friendship, conferred the ‘Order of the Green Crescent’, the highest civilian honour of the Union of Comoros on the Vice President.
Accepting the honour “with utmost humility on behalf of 1.3 billion Indians”, Shri Naidu declared that he was touched by the extra-ordinary gesture and said: “a common vision unites us, a common ocean joins us–it is an ocean of friendship and a vision of growing together”.
On the same day, the Vice President held delegation-level talks and a tête-à-tête with Mr. Azali Assoumani. The two countries signed six MoUs for cooperation in various fields including defense, health and medicine, arts and culture and tele-education (e-Vidya Bharati) and tele-medicine (e-Arogya Bharati).
During the delegation-level talks, Shri Naidu asserted that the recent decision in regard to the re-organization of the Jammu and Kashmir state was purely an internal matter of India and does not change any external border. The decision was made to focus on accelerating development of Jammu and Kashmir, he added.
The Vice President called for enhancing defence ties in maritime domain between India and the islands nation of Comoros as part of collaborative security architecture in the Indian Ocean. “As Indian Ocean countries, our maritime security is interlinked”, he added.
Shri Naidu also thanked the President of the Union of Comoros for the support in the fight against terrorism as well as for reforms in the UN Security Council, including India’s candidature for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.
At Moroni, Shri Naidu also addressed the Parliament and received a standing ovation for his speech.
