India offers training to African countries

Gandhinagar, October 18

India and a group of 50-plus African countries on Tuesday announced that they would enhance cooperation in the field of military training, and increase the number of slots for training military personnel and capability-building of defence forces.

Committed to Africa’s needs

India remains committed to support the African countries’ efforts to deal with the challenges of conflict, terrorism and violent extremism. — Rajnath Singh, Defence minister

This was the key takeaway from the India-Africa Defence Dialogue (IADD) that was conducted on the sidelines of DefExpo 2022 here.

The “Gandhinagar Declaration” was adopted as an outcome document. It proposes to enhance cooperation in the field of training.

It was also decided that India and the 50-plus African nations will conduct exercises for humanitarian assistance during natural disasters. India has offered a fellowship for experts from African countries through the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh defined the theme of IADD as an underlying commitment of India and African countries to explore new areas of convergence for defence engagements, including capacity-building, training, cyber security, maritime security and counter-terrorism.

Without naming China and mentioning about its policies in Africa, the Defence Minister said: “We do not believe in making or becoming a client or a satellite state. When we partner with any nation, it is on the basis of sovereign equality and mutual respect.”

Representatives of more than 50 African countries, including 19 defence ministers and seven chiefs of defence staff, participated.