India proposes to hold the India-Africa Defence Dialogue alongside successive DefExpos, once every two years

The India-Africa dialogues will help build on the existing partnerships between African countries and India and explore new areas of convergence for mutual engagements, including capacity building, training, cyber security, maritime security, and counter-terrorism, according to a statement by the defence ministry.

It has also been decided that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will host the Defence Ministers of African Nations in the next India-Africa Defence Dialogue on the sidelines of the DefExpo at Gandhinagar, Gujarat, in March 2022.

The broad theme of this India-Africa Defence Dialogue will be ‘India-Africa: Adopting Strategy for Synergising and Strengthening Defence and Security Cooperation’.

The statement further emphasised that India and Africa share a close and historical relationship based on two guiding principles, namely ‘SAGAR’ (Security and Growth for All in the Region) and ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (The World is One Family).

The first India Africa Defence Ministers Conclave (IADMC) was held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, in conjunction with DefExpo on February 06, 2020, co-organised by the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of External Affairs.

This was the first in the series of Pan-Africa events at the Ministerial level in the run-up to India Africa Forum Summit IV.

A Joint Declaration, ‘Lucknow Declaration’ was adopted after IADMC 2020 as an outcome document of the Conclave.