Indian Ambassador in Madagascar Abhay Kumar on Tuesday attended a review meeting over the progress in bilateral ties between New Delhi and Antananarivo, according to the Embassy of India in Antananarivo, Madagascar & Comoros.
The meeting was chaired by Madagascar Prime Minister Christian Ntsay in which several cabinet ministers including the Minister of Foreign Affairs Patrick Rajoelina and Indian Ambassador Abhay Kumar were present.
"Today Hon'ble Prime Minister of Madagascar H.E. @NtsayC chaired a meeting to review the progress in bilateral relations between #India and #Madagascar which was attended by several cabinet ministers including the Minister of Foreign Affairs @prajoelina and @AmbassadorAbhay," the embassy tweeted.
Bilateral ties between India and Madagascar are on the upswing for the last three years. Madagascar, along with Comoros, became part of the Indian Ocean Region Division in December 2019.
India became an observer at the Indian Ocean Commission in March 2020 which is a grouping of western Indian Ocean islands.
Prime Minister Christian Ntsay had hosted a meeting in October 2020 to review the bilateral relations between India and Madagascar which were attended by several cabinet ministers and Ambassador Abhay Kumar.
This is a second such meeting taken by the country's Prime Minister to review India-Madagascar bilateral ties. It shows the high importance Madagascar gives to its relations with India.
India has been sending regular humanitarian aid to Madagascar under its SAGAR policy. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had a telephonic conversation with his Malagasy counterpart in March 2021, and India deployed INS Jalashwa with 1000 tonnes of rice for the people of drought-hit Southern Madagascar.
A special training team of the Indian navy trained Malagasy armed forces in the same month. Madagascar's Defence Minister visited India in February 2021 to attend the Indian Ocean Region Defence Ministers Conclave and AeroIndia exhibition in Bangalore.
The ties between the two Indian Ocean neighbours are growing in all spheres. There are about 20,000 people of Indian origin, mostly from Gujarat, who live and work in Madagascar.
India and Madagascar share deep cultural connections and India is a key trade partner of Madagascar with bilateral trade reaching about 400 million USD in 2020-21.
( With inputs from ANI )
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