The President of South Sudan, General Salva Kiir Mayardit, will visit India from August 26-28. He is expected to meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, among other officials. Mayardit will be accompanied by a delegation of South Sudanese ministers, senior officials, and business leaders.
During this meeting, the two sides are expected to discuss bilateral cooperation in areas of agriculture, food security and energy, among other issues.
New Delhi and Juba share close bilateral ties. India was the first Asian country to open a Consulate in Juba in 2007 and among the first countries to formally recognise Africa’s 54th nation. India also has two battalions of 2,200 personnel in the United Nations Mission for South Sudan (UNMISS) deployed in two of the largest states in South Sudan, Jonglei and Upper Nile. ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL) has made substantial investments in the hydrocarbon sector in South Sudan.
During the visit of India’s Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, P. S. Raghavan, to Juba in early August, both sides had agreed to cooperate in the areas of health, education, solar electrification, mining, agriculture, fisheries, food processing, electoral management and hydrocarbons.