India continues to deepen cooperation with Namibia
The High Commissioner of India to Namibia H.E Prashant Agrawal, together with the India community in the country celebrated the 71st Republic Day of India at a reception held last week in Windhoek.
Agrawal said it was 70 years ago, on 26 January 1950 that ‘They, the people of India’ gave themselves their Constitution and they take pride in the values of the Indian Republic that their constitution embodies and codifies.
“We have continued making purposeful strides in deepening our engagement with Africa, our highest priority, therefore our partnership with Africa is deep-rooted and it has solid foundations in our shared history of struggle against colonialism and injustice,” he emphasised.
He highlighted that India’s partnership with Namibia has a special place in in the heart of every Indian, which has gone from strength to strength in recent years.
“There were contacts at the highest level, with the meeting of President hage Geingob and Prime Minister Modi in September 2019 and we also had the pleasure of welcoming different cabinet Ministers to India to discuss and enhance cooperation in trade, commerce, health, environment and sustainable development,” he added.
He said among the things that should be noted is that in the third quarter trade statistic for 2019 released by the Namibian Statistic Agency is that India is Namibia’s fourth largest import partner and nearly 400 Namibians can walk freely with the help of prosthetic limbs provided under the Jaipur Foot Camp.
“Our cooperation in up-skilling and capacity development has gone from strength to strength, while more than 50 Namibians have already received training this year so far under our ITEC and ICCR scholarships, it was very special for us to have 20 budding Namibian diplomats visit India for a customized training programme to hone their skills further,” he said.
Agrawal said 2020 is a special years because Namibian will be celebrating 30 years of Independence and the High Commission of India has a special series of programmes set up to commemorate this milestone.
“The India community in Namibia may be very small, but has made deeply meaningful contribution to Namibia and they are a valuable link between our two countries, we are proud of you all,” he concluded.
