India's MoS External Affairs minister V Muraleedharan makes Africa his maiden destination abroad

New Delhi: India's Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan will visit Nigeria from June 11-13 in what would be his maiden foreign visit abroad after taking over charge eyeing to push India's robust Africa agenda encompassing security and economic partnerships.
He will be attending the "Democracy Day” celebrations in Abuja and interact with the Nigerian leadership on Wednesday. The Minister of State is also expected to meet leaders from Africa who will be attending the "Democracy Day”. Minister of State would also visit Lagos on June 13.

Muraleedharan would interact with the members of the Indian community both in Abuja and Lagos.

India and Nigeria relations was elevated to strategic partnership in 2007. Both the countries also have strong defence cooperation. With annual bilateral trade of $11. 76 billion in the year 2017-18, Nigeria is India’s largest trading partner in Africa, and India is Nigeria’s largest trading partner globally.

Nigeria is also the 5th largest supplier of crude oil and 2nd largest supplier of LNG to India. Indian companies have large presence in Nigeria and Nigeria hosts the largest Indian community in West Africa.

Muraleedharan's visit is expected to followed by President Ram Nath Kovind's trip to Western Africa in July.