Hertta-Maria Amutenja
President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah on Wednesday said Namibia is committed to strengthening bilateral cooperation with India in strategic sectors such as mining and value addition. She made the remarks during official talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in Windhoek on a state visit.
The discussions focused on trade and investment, industrial cooperation, health, defence, multilateral reform, and people-to-people ties.
“This State Visit provides us indeed the opportunity to give impetus to that vision and goal by strengthening trade, investment, technical cooperation, political and people-to-people relations between our two countries,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said.
She said the two countries should build on their historic ties to boost economic growth and maximise local beneficiation.
“We see immense potential for scaling up cooperation in the following strategic areas: green hydrogen and clean energy, mining and value addition, oil and gas, infrastructure development, agriculture and food security, and tourism development,” she said.
India is one of the world’s largest buyers of rough diamonds and is responsible for over 90% of the global cutting and polishing trade. Currently, Namibia exports most of its rough diamonds to India through third-party hubs such as Antwerp, Dubai, and London.
Nandi-Ndaitwah also urged reform of global institutions like the United Nations Security Council, saying they must reflect current geopolitical realities and better represent the Global South.
“We share the same conviction of a fairer, equitable, representative and democratic UN Security Council reflective of the current geopolitical realities and therefore should unite in order to ensure that the desired reforms take place as soon as possible,” she said.
She noted that challenges such as terrorism, poverty, climate change, and global trade disruptions have exposed the limitations of existing multilateral structures.
During his visit, Modi met with local diamond officials and business leaders. No official agreement on diamond trade was signed at the time of writing.
Modi was awarded Namibia’s highest civilian honour, the Order of the Most Ancient Welwitschia Mirabilis, for India’s support for Namibia’s development and continued solidarity.
No signed agreements were made public by the time of going to print.
