Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire), Oct 7 (PTI): External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday held talks with Cote d’Ivoire’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Niale Kaba on strengthening bilateral ties, with a focus on trade, infrastructure, agriculture and healthcare.
The minister arrived in Cote d’Ivoire from Ghana on the second leg of his three-nation tour of African countries, which also includes Ethiopia.
Jaishankar said he had “comprehensive discussions” with Kaba in Abidjan on advancing India-Cote d’Ivoire partnership, “including in trade, investment, infrastructure, agriculture, healthcare and people-to-people ties”.
“Underlined that our people-centric cooperation will be driven by the priorities of Cote d’Ivoire,” he said in a social media post.
The two sides also discussed deepening their engagement in multilateral fora, he said.
Earlier, in Ghana, Jaishankar received from Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa the country’s Instrument of Acceptance for the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA).
IBCA is an India-led global initiative aimed at conserving seven major big cat species — tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, cheetah, jaguar and puma — and their habitats.
India launched the IBCA in 2023 to mark the 50th anniversary of Project Tiger.
The alliance seeks to bring together countries that are home to big cats as well as others interested in supporting their conservation, with cooperation envisaged in areas such as research, knowledge-sharing, capacity building and wildlife management.
Jaishankar also paid tribute at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial in Accra, honouring Ghana’s first prime minister and later president Kwame Nkrumah, a key figure in Africa’s independence movement and one of the leading advocates of pan-Africanism.
Nkrumah, who led Ghana to independence from British colonial rule in 1957, played a prominent role in promoting solidarity among newly independent Asian and African countries.
He was also closely associated with the Non-Aligned Movement and the broader idea of South-South cooperation.
“The memorial and the museum showcase Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s vision of reliance, dignity and freedom. They also remind us of the importance of deeper South-South cooperation,” Jaishankar said. PTI SCY SCY
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