New Delhi: In a bid to enhance cooperation with African countries, V Muraleedharan, Minister of State External Affairs, will visit Nigeria today. This will be his first foreign visit after taking charge as a Union minister.
In his three-day visit, the minister will attend the host nation's Democracy Day celebrations in the Nigerian capital Abuja. He will also visit Nigeria's financial centre Lagos.
Muraleedharan will also interact with Nigerian leadership on June 12. He would interact with members of the Indian community in both Abuja and Lagos.
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Embarking on my first official visit to Nigeria to attend ‘Democracy Day’ celebrations in Abuja. Several meetings with the Ministers from African nations & engagement with Indian community in Abuja & Lagos also scheduled. #IndiaAfricaPartnership@DrSJaishankar @MEAIndia @VMBJP
— V. Muraleedharan (@MOS_MEA) June 10, 2019 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">Embarking on my first official visit to Nigeria to attend ‘Democracy Day’ celebrations in Abuja. Several meetings with the Ministers from African nations & engagement with Indian community in Abuja & Lagos also scheduled. #IndiaAfricaPartnership@DrSJaishankar @MEAIndia @VMBJP
— V. Muraleedharan (@MOS_MEA) June 10, 2019Embarking on my first official visit to Nigeria to attend ‘Democracy Day’ celebrations in Abuja. Several meetings with the Ministers from African nations & engagement with Indian community in Abuja & Lagos also scheduled. #IndiaAfricaPartnership@DrSJaishankar @MEAIndia @VMBJP
— V. Muraleedharan (@MOS_MEA) June 10, 2019
India and Nigeria enjoy friendly relations and strategic partnership since 2007. Both the countries have strong defence cooperation as well.
In 2017-18, the bilateral trade between both countries has gone up to $11.76 billion.
It is important to note that Nigeria is the fifth largest supplier of crude oil and 2nd largest supplier of LNG to India.
Indian companies have a large presence in Nigeria and it also hosts the largest Indian community in West Africa.
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