India to step up coop with African nations

New Delhi, Aug 11: India will step up cooperation with African countries in diverse areas, particularly against global terrorism and for democratisation and reform of the United Nations, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said today.

In the inaugural Dr Dharam Pal Memorial Lecture on 'India and Africa : Strong Bonds and Future Prospects', organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), the External Affairs Minister also said India was working on providing duty-free access to products from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) of Africa.

A majority of countries of Africa support India's claim to the permanent membership of the UN Security Council (UNSC). Both India and Africa are agreed that the United Nations, prticularly the UNSC, must reflect the reality of today and should, therefore, be democratised.

''India has made it abundantly clear that expansion of the UNSC will not be complete without representation from Africa, including in the permanent category. We will sustain our long-held and cherished unity and cooperation with Africa at the UN, in NAM, G-77, on climate change, the WTO etc.,'' the Minister said.

Pointing out that terrorism had not yet been eliminated, Mr Mukherjee said it would require interntional cooperation on an unrecedented scale to make this happen. India would wish to strengthen cooperation with African countries for defeating terrorism.

In the WTO context, India had not only given voice to African aspirations, but had also shared experiences through training and capacity-building programmes for African negotiators.

''...we must fulfil our promise we made at the WTO to provide duty-free access to products from African countries. We are working on this,'' he added.

UNI