Narendra Modi kicks off 4-nation African visit

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, gestures to Mozambique’s President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi after a press briefing in Maputo, Mozambique, Thursday, July 7, 2016. India’s prime minister has kicked off a… (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

MAPUTO, Mozambique (Diya TV) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday kicked off a four-nation African visit on a continent where China’s presence has been strong, including to countries which haven’t been visited by an Indian leader for more than three decades.

Modi’s visit to the nations is meant to raise India’s profile in energy, trade and investment. He began his tour in Mozambique, tweeting his arrival in Portuguese, the official language: “Starting my tour of Africa with a visit to Mozambique.”

Modi’s next stops on the tour include South Africa, which lists India as its sixth-largest trade partner, Tanzania and Kenya.

The country’s foreign ministry pinned the four countries on the Indian Ocean as key economic gateways to other landlocked African states. Mozambique alone receives almost a quarter of India’s investment in Africa, according to the government. A multitude of agreements are expected to be signed with each country, the foreign ministry said, with energy and food being key issues of the agreements. Mozambique is situated to become the third largest exporter of natural gas after Qatar and Australia, the foreign ministry added.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Modi said that India and Mozambique had “agreed to strengthen our defense and security relationship” as well as food security ties, but he gave few details.

He broached on India’s intention to purchase pulses from Mozambique, an area India has been trying to control the prices of due to the fact its a staple diet for millions of the country’s poor. The poverty-stricken population in India has doubled in the past 18 months because of two successive drought years.

India also hopes to sign civil aviation agreements to introduce direct flights into the countries, no Indian airline currently has a direct connection anywhere in Africa.

Modi is expected to meet with the Indian community in South Africa, which has a population of more than one million of Indian origin. He’ll do the same in Kenya, with 80,000 people of Indian origin.

While in Durban, South Africa, Modi is expected to take a the same journey by train that Mohandas K. Gandhi once took to commemorate the Indian independence leader. Gandhi’s exposure to racism while living in South Africa as a young man is believed to have shaped his resistance to segregation with nonviolent protest.