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New Delhi, July 26 (ANI): An Indian delegation led by Ministry of External Affairs Secretary (West) Vivek Katju participated in the Executive Council Session of the 15th Summit of the African Union held in Kampala, Uganda.

The participation was in keeping with India’s consistent engagement with the African Union multilaterally and it’s Member States bilaterally.
During the Summit, Vivek Katju and the delegation called on Jean Ping, Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union. Various aspects of the continuing engagement with Africa and the follow-up of the decisions of the India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) of April 2008 were discussed.

“The Chairperson expressed immense satisfaction at the model of engagement created by India and said it was the most unique and preferred of Africa’s partnerships. He also expressed satisfaction at the determined pace at which implementation of the proposals of the IAFS had been undertaken,” The Ministry of External Affairs reports.

The action plan of the framework of cooperation of the IAFS was announced in March 2010 and among the decisions currently under implementation are the placement of the first batch of 75 scholars under the Special Scheme for Agriculture Sciences in the Institutions of ICAR; the initiation of the CV Raman fellowships for Scientific Research; the implementation of several new training programmes, including the holding of capacity building courses by the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade in nine African countries so far.

India is to establish 19 institutions for building African capacities of which four are at the continental level and the others on a regional level.

The African Union has decided on the locations of some of these institutions in West and Central Africa and communicated those decisions to the Indian delegation at the meeting.

During the Summit, Vivek Katju also met with several Foreign Ministers on a bilateral basis to review the existing level of bilateral engagement and to further the agenda set at the IAFS in April 2008.

These include the Foreign Minister of the host country of the Summit - Uganda; the Chair of the African Union - Malawi; Rwanda; Burundi; Ethiopia; Kenya; Lesotho; Mauritius; Seychelles; Zambia; Namibia; South Africa; Djibouti; Republic of Congo; Cote d’Ivoire; Liberia; Sierra Leone; Senegal; and the forthcoming Chair of the African Union - Equatorial Guinea.

The issue of UN reform and the common African position was a subject of discussion at the Summit and was also discussed with the Foreign Ministers, particularly the Committee of ten of the African Union.

On the sidelines of the Summit, the delegation also met with the Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission, several Commissioners and representatives of the Regional Economic Communities.

The 15th session of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union started on July 25 in Kampala, Uganda. (ANI)