Transcript of Special Briefing by MEA on Visit of President to Botswana and Angola (November 06, 2025)
India - Ministry of External Affairs
November 06, 2025
Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you to this special briefing by Secretary (ER) Shri. Sudhakar Dalela, on the upcoming visit of Rashtrapatiji to Angola and Botswana. The visit will take place during 8th to 13th of November.
Let me also inform you that this happens to be the maiden press briefing of Secretary (ER). So while the visit is important, this is also a special attribute of this particular briefing. We also have with us Smt Manisha Verma, Press Secretary to Rashtrapati ji; as also Shri Sevala Naik Mude, Additional Secretary, who looks after Central and West Africa; and Shri Janesh Kain, Joint Secretary, who looks after Eastern and Southern Africa.
With that, I invite Secretary (ER) for his opening remarks on the upcoming state visit. Sir.
Shri Sudhakar Dalela, Secretary (ER): Thank you very much, Randhir, and good afternoon to all of you, friends from media. As Randhir mentioned, Hon'ble President will be paying a state visit to Angola and Botswana from November 8th to 13th. This will be the first ever State Visit by an Indian head of state to Angola and Botswana.
As all of you are familiar, India's engagement with Africa has been growing across all key pillars, from political to trade and economic to development partnership and people-to-people connections. There have been numerous high-level political engagements at the level of Head of State, Head of Government, Vice President, EAM... These engagements have allowed us to deepen our cooperation with the African region across sectors.
India's engagement with Africa is guided by 10 principles outlined by Hon'ble Prime Minister in 2018 while addressing the Parliament of Uganda. Our expanding ties with Africa align with the development agenda of the African continent, which is reflected in their Agenda 2063 document. The India-Africa Forum Summit provides a comprehensive framework for dialogue and cooperation with the African region.
You are aware that India's diplomatic footprint has expanded significantly in recent years with the opening of 17 new missions in Africa. You're also aware that it was during India's G20 presidency in 2023 that we welcomed the African Union as a new permanent member of the G20.
India's growing engagement with the African continent is also in consonance with government's priority for a strengthening partnership with countries in the Global South. Our trade with the African region is reaching almost US dollar 100 billion. We have a strong development partnership with the African region. Over three million strong Indian diaspora across African region continues to serve as a bridge for fostering cultural and economic linkages.
The visit of Hon'ble Rashtrapati ji has to be seen in this larger context of high priority accorded by Government of India in expanding partnership with the African region.
Hon'ble Rashtrapati ji will be visiting first Angola from 8 to 11 November at the invitation of her counterpart from Angola. You will also recall that earlier this year in May, Angolan President had paid a successful visit to India. He had extended an invitation to Hon'ble President to visit Angola and to also participate in the 50th anniversary celebrations of Angola's independence. India had consistently supported Angolan freedom struggle as many of you would know. Further India and Angola are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relation this year. President of Angola is currently the chairperson of the African Union. So for all these reasons the visit of Hon'ble Rashtrapatiji assumes significance.
During her visit, Hon'ble President will be holding bilateral talks with the President of Angola. She will be attending the 50th anniversary celebrations of Angola's independence on 11 November. Hon'ble President is scheduled to address the Angolan Parliament and to interact with members of the Indian community of Angola. India and Angola of course enjoy very close ties of friendship and cooperation which have been growing across sectors. We have a vibrant energy partnership with Angola.
Building on the momentum imparted by the visit of Angolan President to India this year, the state visit of Hon'ble Rashtrapati ji will provide an opportunity to review entire gamut of bilateral ties and to expand mutually beneficial cooperation in sectors such as agriculture, health, energy, trade and investments, technology, infrastructure development, defense and people-to-people connections.
On the second leg of the visit, Hon'ble Rashtrapati ji will be visiting Botswana from 11 to 13 November, at the invitation of the President of Botswana His Excellency Duma Gideon Boko.
The State Visit underscores India's commitment to strengthen its long-standing and friendly ties with Botswana. During the visit, Hon'ble Rashtrapatiji will be holding bilateral talks with her counterpart. The two leaders will discuss and explore new avenues for enhancing bilateral cooperation in areas such as trade and investments, technology, energy, agriculture, health, pharmaceuticals, defense, and people-to-people ties.
In Botswana as well, Hon'ble President is scheduled to address the National Assembly of Botswana and visit sites of cultural and historical importance. Several dignitaries from Botswana will call on Hon'ble Rashtrapatiji during her visit.
I may add that India and Botswana will be celebrating 60 years of establishment of the diplomatic relations next year. Botswana's Vision 2036 document outlines its effort to diversify its economy and to become a high-income society. In this context the visit will provide us an opportunity to appreciate their priorities, and discuss how Indian business community can partner with their Botswana counterpart in identified sectors. We are also engaging with Botswana for translocation of cheetahs to India as part of Project Cheetah, and expecting good progress in this regard.
In both Angola and Botswana we have a vibrant Indian community. Hon'ble Rashtrapati ji will be interacting with them in Luanda and Gaborone. The upcoming visit of Hon'ble Rashtrapati ji is therefore very important and we are expecting important outcomes in the form of MoUs or other announcements.
We are confident that the visit of Hon'ble Rashtrapatiji will further strengthen India's long-standing collaborative ties with Angola and Botswana, and open up new avenues for collaboration and expanding our partnership. It is also as I said earlier reflective of India's firm commitment to further strengthen its multifaceted partnership with the African continent.
With these words I would be happy to respond to any question that you may have. Thank you.
Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Thank you. With that we open the floor for questions.
Huma Siddiqui, StratNews Global: Sir my name is Huma Siddiqui, and I am from StratNews Global. Sir, I have two questions. Angola is going to assume the presidency of the African Union next year. So, how important would be energy and food security when you are there in Angola? And would any agreement in the energy sector be signed?
And my second question is, in the defense and the space sector, is there anything on the cards to be discussed?
Sahil Pandey, ANI: Sir, I am Sahil Pandey from ANI News Agency. Sir, what bilateral agreements, MOU or joint declarations are planned for signing in the areas like energy, agriculture, health, defense or digital cooperation, if any?
Keshav Padmanabhan, ThePrint: Sir, good evening. Keshav Padmanabhan from ThePrint. My first question is with regards to Angola. When the Angolan President had come earlier this year, I think there was a $200 million line of credit for defense modernization. So, I just wanted to understand where that line is and whether there will be discussions on this. And with regards to Botswana, you also mentioned new areas of cooperation with regards to defense.
So, I just wanted to understand what will be discussed or what is on the agenda with regards to defense and security cooperation with Botswana in particular. Thank you.
Rishabh, Times Now: Hi, sir. Good evening. Rishabh from Times Now. Sir, I wanted to understand, when we talk about defense between India and Angola, or India and Botswana as well, are we also looking at training their recruits for their defense forces as well? Because there were certain talks that certain African countries are interested in training their recruits in Indian academies.
Shri Sudhakar Dalela, Secretary (ER): Thank you very much for all these very thoughtful questions. Let me start by the question regarding Angola and the chairpersonship of Angolan president for the African Union.
So, they assumed the chairpersonship this year in February and they will continue to be chairperson till next February. And as I mentioned to you, we work very closely with the African Union in the framework of India-Africa Forum Summit. And we would like to discuss the cooperation with the chairperson of AU and see how we can make the next meeting of the India-Africa Forum Summit a success. We are in touch with the African Union colleagues and we are discussing with them. We are planning already as to how we structure, what are the dates. We have to, of course, consult AU because a number of leaders will be travelling for the India-Africa Forum Summit.
You mentioned energy and food security. I think both are very critical sectors for cooperation. When the Hon'ble president of Angola came to India this year, he did discuss both these aspects with our leadership. Of course, we have fairly vibrant energy partnership with Angola already. And we have about USD 5 billion trade with Angola, out of which I would say 80% is energy sector. So, our partnership with Angola from energy security perspective is very critical. And we would like to explore the possibility of providing sort of more momentum and depth to our partnership in the energy sector.
Angola has a large segment of arable land, and they are very keen that Indian expertise, Indian technology in the area of agriculture can be utilized by Angolan side. So, we are very ready to share our experience with the Angolan side. And this visit will give us a chance to discuss those elements also.
There were two questions on LOC/defense cooperation with Angola. You are very right that we did announce our readiness to extend the line of credit of 200 million for cooperation in defense sector with Angola. We are in the middle of discussion with Angola now to finalize LOC agreement. We feel that we will be able to partner with Angola in this important area of defense, as per their requirements.
On defense training, I would like to mention that we do train a number of officers from partner countries in Global South, including Angola and Botswana. With Botswana, actually, we have very historic partnership in the defense sector. Our Indian training team was there for three decades in Botswana, working very closely with the Botswana Defense Forces. And, as we speak, we have number of officers from Botswana coming every year as part of the ITEC program, both for civilian and for defense. So we would like to pursue our cooperation in defense sector with both Angola and with Botswana.
You mentioned about space cooperation also, and I'm very happy that you raised this point. This aspect was also discussed during the visit of Angolan president to India, actually. And he expressed an interest in sort of harnessing space technology for various development programmes. We would like to pursue that conversation during this visit of Hon'ble Rashtrapati Ji to Angola.
There was a question about what we are going to sign in terms of bilateral MoUs. As I mentioned, we are discussing MoUs in the area of health, in the area of fisheries, in the area of capacity building. And we do hope that we can concretize these MoUs before the visit of Hon'ble Rashtrapati ji. There would also be some announcements. As you know, we have been requesting our partner countries to join the regional frameworks such as International Solar Alliance or CDRI or Global Biofuel Alliance or International Big Cat Alliance. And we are very hopeful that during the visit of Hon'ble Rashtrapati ji that Angola and Botswana will indicate some positive movement on our request for them to join and partner with us in these regional contexts.
I think I have tried to answer most of the questions. If I missed something, I will be very happy to come back again. Thank you.
Srinjoy: Sir, you spoke about Cheetahs. How many Cheetahs and when are they expected? It has generated so much interest and optimism in India.
Rishikesh, PTI: Rishikesh from PTI. So, is India exploring to boost its oil imports from Angola? And as we have seen in the past, China has offered a huge amount of loan to Angola in exchange of oil imports. Will India follow this route, or India is offering some kind of loan to build infrastructure in Angola?
Yeshi Seli, Business India: Yeshi Seli from Business India. I had a question similar to Rishi. You just mentioned that 80% of Angola's exports are energy exports, right? So is it primarily crude or LNG because they export both and also you are sending back refined products.
Now in the light of sanctions on Russian crude, are we going to be increasing crude from Angola? Do you know the percentage of crude that we import from Angola right now?
Vijai Lakshmi: Sir, aapne ek to bataya ki defense ke Kshetra mein saajhedaari ko lekar iske alawa kin aur kshetron mein saajhedaari is poore summit se aa sakti hai? Aur digital innovation ek sector hai usko lekar ke bhi kya kisi tarah ki koi ghoshna ya kuch is visit ke baad humare saamne aa sakta hai?
[Approximate Translation: Question in Hindi] Sir, you mentioned cooperation in the field of defense. Apart from that, in which other areas could partnerships emerge from this entire summit? Also, since digital innovation is one of the sectors, can we expect any announcement or development related to it after this visit?
Akhilesh Suman, Doordarshan News: Sir, I am Akhilesh Suman from Doordarshan News. Can you tell us who are the part of delegation, that is going with President? And also some people think that there are lots of unexplored rare earth minerals in Botswana and Angola. So are you going to talk about it also?
Keshav Padmanabhan, ThePrint: Thank you again. Keshav from ThePrint. I just wanted to check, Angola is part of the Lobito corridor, which was announced at the G20 apart from IMEC and I know that is EU-US primarily. But I just wanted to check whether there is any discussions on India sort of joining or participating ... these sort of transport connectivity projects in Africa, with Angola in particular. Thank you.
Shri Sudhakar Dalela, Secretary (ER): Thank you very much for these questions. I will try to respond to all of them in the sequence that they were raised.
Firstly, about the Cheetah. As I mentioned, we have been working already with Namibia and South Africa as part of our shared commitment for conservation and biodiversity protection. So, in addition to Namibia and South Africa, we have been talking to Botswana for some time and they have indicated their readiness to work with us in this area. So, I would not like to give you a number but certainly it will be a good number that we are hoping, and I also feel that they will be moving to India very soon.
Now the next question was about the LOC in general for infrastructure projects. You are right that we have ... As part of our development partnership, we do assist partner countries through line of credit or sometimes grant assistance also. And, if there is a request from Angola or Botswana in the area of infrastructure development and some assistance for line of credit, we will be very happy to look at those requests. As of now, we do not have any requests from them in this area except the defense LOC that we have already announced.
In terms of import from Angola right now, we do import crude and we do import LNG also, you are very right. As I mentioned to you, last year our imports were of the order of $4 billion. And we would like to discuss with Angola as to how we can sort of strengthen our partnership going forward as Angola is the second largest supplier of energy from Africa. So this is a very important area of cooperation for us. We do also export refined products to Angola as you mentioned.
In the area of DPIs and digital innovation, yes, we are very keen to share our expertise and experience in the area of digital innovation, digital stack, digital technology, DPI. And there is a degree of interest both in Angola and Botswana, and I think this visit will give us a clear idea as to what exactly the requirements are from these two partner countries, and we will be very happy to strengthen our partnership in both these areas.
In terms of rail network ... there was a question about rail connectivity and the corridor that you mentioned. Of course, Angola has a sizable rail corridor, and I gather that they are trying to develop more connectivity towards Namibia as also towards DRC. And they are trying to sort of look at the possibility of partnership in the area of rail infrastructure.
So, again, we haven't received any clear concrete proposal from Angola. But, maybe during this visit, this issue may come up for discussion and we will be very happy to engage and see what are the possibilities in this direction. We have tremendous capacity of course in rail sector, and we have been working in Africa in rail sector with Mozambique and other countries.
Mineral resources, some colleague mentioned, certainly yes. We certainly, as part of our larger trade and economic cooperation ... we are working with the partner countries in Africa in the area of critical minerals. We have a national critical mineral mission in India and we would like to work with them and see how we can work in this area through joint ventures, through processing of some minerals together and meeting our requirements for sustainability including electrical vehicles and other sectors of cooperation. Thank you.
Huma Siddiqui, StratNews Global: Sir, there are concerns about cyber security, especially in the African continent. So is India expected to offer its support or some kind of a cooperation in dealing with the cyber crimes?
Kallol Bhattacherjee, The Hindu:Kallol from The Hindu. Sir, the President is travelling to Africa at a time when there is a very big civil war and conflict happening in Sudan nearby. So is there a message regarding these conflicts that are endemic in Africa?
Recently, of course, Nigeria has received so much attention because of President Trump's remarks about the attacks on the Christian community there. So, since the President is going, would there be a message also about building consensus and ending these conflicts in the continent, Sir?
Santosh, Nav Bharat: Good evening, Sir. Santosh from Nav Bharat. Sir mujhe janna tha ki ITEC mein unka kya abhi Quota hai dono countries ka aur last time unka ye tha ki wo Quota badhane ki bhi baat kar rahe the. Toh kya us par bhi koi baat hogi? Thank you.
[Approximate Translation: Question in Hindi] Good evening, sir. Santosh from Nav Bharat. Sir, I wanted to know what the current ITEC quota is for both countries. And last time they had mentioned the possibility of increasing that quota — so will that also be discussed this time? Thank you.
Shri Sudhakar Dalela, Secretary (ER): Thank you very much again for these very thoughtful questions. Regarding the last question about ITEC. As I mentioned to you we have a very robust partnership for capacity building with Botswana. I mentioned to you in the last 10 years almost 750 professionals and students, civil servants have come to India for training program across India in different sectors, including defense area.
And, if there is a requirement for more slots in certain areas, we'll be very happy to have a customized program also for our partner countries from Global South. So, ITEC in capacity building, I think we will be very supportive to any request for enhanced partnership.
Regarding cyber security area, as I said, as part of a program to build and foster relationship and partnership with the Global South, we would be very happy to work in this area of cyber security as well. We haven't had a very detailed discussion with Angola and Botswana on this sector, but going forward, we would be open to collaborating in these domains also with our African partners.
I think the message of the visit is very clear that we have a very robust, very multifaceted partnership with Africa. We want to work and expand our partnership with Africa and countries in the Global South. We would like to share our own development experience with the African friends, African partners, and we would like to be a partner in the development journey.
So, I think our message is very clear that we want to move ahead at a speed in which we can strengthen our partnership and we can strengthen our trade and economic relationship. We can improve our political engagement, and within the framework of IAFS, across all sectors, we would like to work very closely with the African region. So our message is very clear that we want to partner and deepen our partnership with the African region.
Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, with that, we come to the close of this press briefing.
Yatra ke dauraan kai ek press vaarta hongi aur us press vaarta ke maadhyam se aap logon ko avagat karaya jaayega ki kya-kya cheez ho rahi hai, toh saath jude rahiye hamare, bahut-bahut dhanyavaad.
[Approximate Translation]: During the visit, there will be several press briefings, and through those interactions, you will be informed about the developments taking place. So, please stay connected with us. Thank you very much.
New Delhi
November 06, 2025
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