By:Kassahun Chanie
Delivering a high-level public lecture at the Adwa Victory Memorial in Addis Ababa, the Minister of External Affairs of the Republic of India, Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, announced that India is significantly deepening its strategic partnership with Ethiopia and the broader African continent through expanded human capital investments, healthcare upgrades, digital technology transfers, and coordinated diplomatic action to reform outdated global governance institutions.
Opening the forum alongside senior government officials, diplomatic corps members, and academics, the Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, Nebiat Getachew, introduced Dr. Jaishankar as an authoritative voice of the Global South and commended the millennia of civilizational ties linking India and Africa through the Indian Ocean. Moderating the session, Nebiat highlighted that bilateral relations have reached an unprecedented height following their elevation to a comprehensive strategic partnership, inquiring how both sides can transition from traditional solidarity to impactful geopolitical coordination.
Responding to these priorities, Dr. Jaishankar disclosed that New Delhi has fulfilled its commitment to double long-term higher-education scholarships for Ethiopian students and will continue providing more than 400 Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) specialized training slots annually for Ethiopian civil servants, corporate executives, and defense personnel. The External Affairs Minister reported that over 600 Indian enterprises are currently operating across Ethiopia, injecting vital capital and generating approximately 75,000 local jobs in priority sectors including manufacturing, textiles, agro-processing, and information technology.
Detailing concrete social sector deliverables, Dr. Jaishankar stated that the Indian government has finalized plans to upgrade the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Addis Ababa, organize a specialized prosthetic limb camp to assist persons with physical disabilities, and deepen bilateral pharmaceutical collaboration through the mutual recognition of standards. Having toured the Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute and the Science Museum earlier in the day, the Minister commended Ethiopia’s proactive digital modernization and affirmed India’s readiness to co-create advanced solutions in artificial intelligence, space science, and drone applications, while linking youth innovators across both nations to pioneer domestic solutions.
Addressing the broader continental architecture, Dr. Jaishankar underscored that India stands as Africa’s fourth-largest trading partner, with bilateral commerce approaching 100 billion US dollars, backed by more than 220 completed development initiatives valued at 4.5 billion dollars under concessional lines of credit. He emphasized that Indian engagement remains strictly anchored in the 2018 Kampala Principles, which mandate that all developmental initiatives must be demand-driven, non-extractive, transparent, and aligned with Africa's own development agenda rather than creating unsustainable debt dependencies.
On global governance, the Indian foreign minister called for urgent and structural reform of what he termed an anachronistic international architecture, particularly the United Nations Security Council. He asserted that developing nations have borne the heaviest brunt of the "4F crisis" encompassing severe disruptions to fuel, food, fertilizer, and finance caused by external conflicts and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, without having caused them. Dr. Jaishankar recommended that India and Africa utilize their collective diplomatic weight to dismantle historical inequities, pointing to India's successful championship of permanent African Union membership in the G20 as an example of actionable multilateral solidarity.
Concluding his address, Dr. Jaishankar declared that the alignment between Africa’s Agenda 2063 and India’s Viksit Bharat 2047 vision provides a historic blueprint for south-south cooperation, reaffirming India’s commitment to supporting Ethiopia's hosting of COP32 in 2027 to advance global climate justice and shared prosperity.
