Venkaiah Naidu departs for 5-day trip to Comoros

New Delhi: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday departed for a five-day trip to the Union of Comoros and Sierra Leone with an aim to intensify India’s bilateral ties with the African continent.
“VP @MVenkaiahNaidu emplanes for the first-ever high-level visit to Comoros & Sierra Leone, highlighting the priority attached to deepening the sustained India-Africa engagement,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.
Naidu’s trip will mark the first high-level visit from India to the two African countries. The Vice President will be accompanied by a high-level delegation and other government officials.
Naidu will arrive in Moroni later today and will hold a detailed bilateral meeting with the country’s President Azali Assoumani followingly. The three-day visit will witness the Vice President interacting with the Indian community and calling on Abdou Ousseni, the President of the Assembly of the Union of Comoros.
A number of Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and agreements are expected to be signed during the visit, according to a release by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
India shares close, warm and friendly relations with Comoros which are cemented by mutual trust, development partnership and presence of a small but significant Indian diaspora. New Delhi has extended concessional lines of credit of USD 41.6 million for setting up an 18 MW power plant in Moroni. The bilateral trade is modest and reached USD 47.11 million in 2018-19.