Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday will leave on a five-day three-nation tour of Africa during which he will attend this year’s BRICS Summit to be hosted by South Africa.

At a media briefing, TS Tirumurti, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the External Affairs Ministry, said Modi would be in Rwanda on 23-24 July, in Uganda on 24-25 July and in South Africa from 25-27 July. In South Africa, the PM is expected to hold bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders on the margins of the BRICS Summit.

Modi will first stop in Rwanda in what will be the first ever prime ministerial visit from India to the East African nation.

He said India would open its first mission in Rwanda very soon. India’s current High Commissioner to Rwanda has residence in Kampala, Uganda.

“Rwanda has also been a recipient of our lines of credit of nearly $400 million and of our training and scholarship programmes,” he said.

During Modi’s visit, two more lines of credit are expected to be signed — one of $100 million for industrial parks and another of similar amount for agriculture and irrigation.

“We expect agreements to be concluded in the areas of defence, dairy cooperation, leather, agriculture and culture,” Tirumurti said.

From Rwanda, Modi will reach Uganda on 24 July in what will the first bilateral visit by an Indian PM in 21 years.

Tirumurti said that training and capacity building has been the focus of defence cooperation between India and Uganda. “India has an Indian military training team stationed in Jinja since 2010,” he said. 

“We expect to extend two lines of credit for the first time to Uganda of $141 million regarding electricity lines and sub-stations and $64 million for agriculture and dairy production,” he said.

From Uganda, Modi will reach South Africa on July 25 on the third and last leg of his visit to Africa.

Noting that the visit to South Africa is mainly in the context of this year’s BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Summit, Tirumurti said that Modi will also hold a bilateral meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa.

South Africa is organising the 10th BRICS leaders’ summit under the theme “BRICS in Africa: Collaboration with Developing Countries for Inclusive Growth and Shared Prosperity in the Fourth Industrial Revolution”.

Modi, along with other BRICS leaders, will participate in the restricted session, plenary session, leaders’ retreat, outreach with leaders from Africa and outreach with leaders from the global South.

“In the BRICS-Africa outreach, those invited include Rwanda, Uganda, Togo, Zambia, Namibia, Senegal, Gabon, Ethiopia, Angola and the African Union Chair. In the BRICS-plus outreach, the invited countries of the global South include Argentina, Turkey, Indonesia, Jamaica, and Egypt,” Tirumurti added.