|
Lagos, March 16 (IANS) India and the oil-rich Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, have firmed up a Track II dialogue and unveiled new initiatives towards a strategic partnership that includes a joint academic project between leading think tanks of the two countries and joint defence production. Sudhir T. Devare, director general of the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), a government-backed think tank, led a delegation of diplomats and scholars to Lagos, Nigeria's commercial hub, for a conference on invigorating India-Nigeria partnership. The March 14-15 conference was organised in collaboration with the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs. (NIIA). It culminated in a host of new initiatives that included the exchange of scholars, a joint academic project between ICWA and NIIA on Indian Ocean and piracy containment and encouraging joint defence production partnerships between India and Nigeria. The academic conference is part of the Track II dialogue process that was announced at the second India-Africa Forum Summit in Addis Ababa in 2011. The ICWA signed a pact with the NIIA in 2007 to step up academic collaboration. The strategic and economic ties between India and Nigeria have been steadily growing. Nigeria's former president, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, concluded a five-day visit to India this week Nigeria supplies over 10 per cent of India's crude oil imports. Bilateral trade between the two countries exceeded $ 13 billion in 2010-11 and is expected to cross $19 billion this year. Over 100 Indian companies have a presence in Nigeria where around 35,000 Indians are currently resident. Nearly 33,000 Nigerians visited India in 2011, with business and medical tourism as the main drivers.
| 
