Pretoria – Africa and India have pledged to further strengthen their cooperation in regional and global peace and security, as well as economic and trade areas.
In the fields of economic cooperation, the two sides underlined the importance of supporting stable, long-term capital flows to developing countries to stimulate investment.
They envisaged a widening of the partnership to areas such as civil society and governance, science and technology, social development, health, culture, tourism, sports, infrastructure and media and communications, in order to achieve inclusive growth, social-economic development and self-reliance.
This forms part of the deceleration made at the second Africa-India Forum Summit, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
According to the Addis Ababa Declaration, India and Africa also committed to deal with a number of political issues, including piracy off the coast of Somalia, terrorism and UN reform.
Specifically, the summit emphasised the need for countries to exert utmost effort on UN Security Council reform during the current session of the UN General Assembly.
The two sides underscored the need for urgent and comprehensive reforms, saying they must reflect contemporary realities.
India supports Africa’s claims for permanent membership of Security Council. On its part, Africa backs India’s claim to a permanent seat with full rights in an expanded Security Council.
Amid growing regional and international concerns about the conflict in Libya, where NATO has intensified its bombing campaign in recent days, India joined Africa in calling for an immediate ceasefire and for a negotiated end to the violence there.
The declaration took note of the UN resolutions under which NATO is using military force against Libya and stressed that efforts to implement them should be within the spirit and letter of those resolutions.
They urged parties in the conflict to strive for a political solution through peaceful means and dialogue.
India and the 15 African governments including — South Africa and Libya, which took part in the summit — also expressed their support for the African Union High-Level Ad Hoc Committee initiative and the AU roadmap for the peaceful and consensual resolution of the conflict.
Both sides called on all countries to ensure that acts of cross-border terrorism do not occur and that their territories are not made a base for terrorists. They unequivocally condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. An act of terrorism anywhere is a threat to the entire international community, they said.
“We recognise the need to further strengthen international cooperation to combat global terrorism and for compliance of all member states with all international terrorism conventions and related protocols and United Nations Security Council’s resolution on counter-terrorism,” the declaration said.
Taking note of the African position on the condemnation of the payments of ransom to terror groups, the leaders called for the urgent need to address the issue.
The next Africa-India summit will be held in New Delhi in 2014. – BuaNews
