Africa outreach: Top state ministers named envoys

NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi, in an out-of-the-box initiative, is deputing several of his ministers, including VK Singh, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Dharmendra Pradhan, Muktar Abbas Naqvi and Rajya Vardhan Rathore, as his special envoys beginning July across 54 African countries to invite their leaders for the mega summit here in October.

Except for SAARC summits, invites to heads of state and governments for any summit in India are sent through diplomatic channels --MEA and diplomatic missions abroad. However, the Modi government has so far identified 15 MoS as special envoys to visit African countries to invite their leaders for the October 29 third India-Africa Summit, diplomatic sources told ET.

“The visit of special envoys signals the political importance attached to the summit. This is a clear signal of the Modi government’s desire for extensive outreach to resource-rich and politic a l ly important African continent,” an official said.

Support of 54 African states will play a significant role in fulfilling India’s ambition to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Usually, the foreign minister is deputed as the PM’s special envoy to invite seven other South Asian leaders for the SAARC summit.

The list of 15 ministers include Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh, MoS Skills Development & Parliamentary Affairs (Independent Charge) Rajiv Pratap Rudy, MoS (Independent Charge) for Oil and Gas Dharmendra Pradhan, MoS Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, MoS Railways Manoj Sinha, MoS AAYUSH (Independent Charge) & Health Sripad Naik, MoS I&B Rajya Vardhan Rathore, MoS Tourism (Independent Charge) and Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma.

Dates of visits by these ministers are being finalized, and the first leg of these visits will start in the first half of July, sources informed.