Honorable Fred Opolot,
Honorable members of the Parliament,
Senior members of the Indian diaspora,
High Commissioner and dear friends.
First of all, let me say it's really great pleasure on my first morning here, to meet with all of you. (Inaudible). I maybe a minister, but I'm also a member of the Parliament (MP). So I want to remind all of you that I very much, in a way, you know, have this feel, the thoughts, the interest, the mindset, that many of you have. And I am particularly pleased today at meeting all of you, because in my own country, I know that when members of Parliament take interest in foreign affairs, when they commit themselves to furthering any relationship it's a great force of strength for those ties. You know, every Foreign Minister listens to their MPs, trust me on that. So I'm sure that you know, when all of you collectively express your interest and your commitment, my counterpart must be feeling the same thing.
Now, at the beginning, reference was made to the more intense relationship that we've had across (Inaudible). And that is indeed the case. We've had from India, Prime Minister Modi, here a few years ago. Many of us remember his, particularly his address to the Parliament, because he actually used that to lay out our Africa policy, as well as our development partnership policy. So even in our larger dealings with the world, you know, we refer to it as the Kampala Principles. So it's something which is really very significant you know, in our foreign policy. But we've also had our Vice President here, who is the chairman of the Upper House; our Speaker, my colleague, who's the minister directly in charge of African Affairs, and I am here and I hope, between all these visits it completely convinces you really how serious we are and how much we look forward to taking this relationship forward.
We had President Museveni visit India last, during the India-Africa summit in 2015. It was our hope, of course, that we would do the next summit. It has slipped, unfortunately, due to COVID. But despite the COVID, what I do want to say is, whether it was the commitments made by Prime Minister Modi, when he came to Uganda, or the commitments we made at the India-Africa Summit, we have kept those commitments. And one of those commitments of which we are particularly proud of, was we had committed really to provide educational and skill access to 50,000 young people from Africa. Despite the COVID, we've actually reached in excess of 45,000. And when we look at the next generation, for us, the next generation is not only the next generation in Parliament, which we give a lot of emphasis on, but actually the next generation of leaders and policymakers and professionals and implementers in the society.
I'm particularly glad to learn of the forum of all that you are doing Honorable members and the interest that you are taking whether it's the LoC, whether it's the infrastructure or whether it is the issue of how to make Ugandans of Indian origin, a much more integrated part of your society. I certainly would support you, your endeavors in this and I truly wish you strength. I look forward to your taking all these issues forward.
Let me briefly speak about our development partnerships. One, because an important event in my own program this time, is the inauguration of the National Forensic Research University.
We have a university, which was the brainchild of Prime Minister Modi. Its first campus of India is in Uganda. I have the privilege of joining the President and the Defense Minister tomorrow for that event, and I think that's a testimony of how strong our relationship is.
You referred sir, to the lines of credit. I did note that somehow we were not, for whatever bureaucratic obstacle, not successful in taking it forward. But what I do want to say is, it would be very helpful for us to actually have clarity, conceptual clarity. If we can make up our minds that we do want to go forward, from our side I assure you, we will be flexible. I will not allow, you know, a process issue to come on the way. If that means that we have to change, tweak some rules and policies (Inaudible), I'm prepared to do that. I will be informing the Honorable Prime Minister today of that. But I would urge you to look at that line of credit, if you are genuinely interested, because at the end of the day, that is a call you have to make. The focus, of course, as you all know, is on power transmission and on dairy and animal husbandry. I understand these are really priority issues. So certainly, (Inaudible) I want to reiterate our commitment.
I will also, today, be joining one of your ministers in the virtual inauguration of a water supply project. And here too, I leave the thought with you, because increasingly across the world, water; getting water to communities, getting safe, quality water to communities is a very major issue. And one of the largest, I would say developmental initiatives we have in India today. In this, in Prime Minister Modi's first tenure, we made a dramatic change in terms of providing electricity to homes and toilets to people. In this term, we are very confident that our ability to get piped water across to all homes in India will be almost completely achieved. So we today are willing to share some of those experiences, because a lot of businesses and experiences have got created in that process. And that is something which may be of (inaudible) use.
We also have a long tradition of exchanges of education, of training, it is in the civilian sector, it's in the defense sector. Yesterday, I told the Defense Minister, we'd be happy to expand that and take that forward. Now having shared my thoughts, I also take the liberty of sharing with you some of the guidance that I got yesterday from President Museveni (Inaudible) soon after arrival. And he impressed on me why it is important for us to really focus on value adds. That this is a country which has a lot of resources, a lot of talent, a lot of skill, it has a lot of produce. But how do we get value adds on the produce? How do we scale up that companies (Inaudible)? How do we connect Uganda much closer to the global markets? I think these were really, the thrust of what he shared with me. And I assured him and I share that with you that the follow-up, which we will do is to have sustained business events, business events in India, where there's an opportunity to market, you know, all the possibilities in Uganda to Indian business, as well as we would be keen to send the business delegation here so that they themselves you know, those who have an interest are able to interact with business. And here I would say the Ugandans of Indian origin, the Indian diaspora, I think is particularly important.
I echo many of the words which the High Commissioner said, and I do feel that, you know, how to get the best out of them in terms of connecting to the world, not just connecting to India, that their entrepreneurial skills actually open up many other possibilities for Uganda. So, that is something which you might want to reflect on.
We, today, of course, in India, we are very preoccupied with our Chair-ship of the G20 and, the meetings are taking place as we speak. We will have a very big summit in September. But I mentioned that to you, because we (Inaudible) G20 differently. We are doing it differently in the sense that no other Chair of G20 made an effort to consult all the countries of the global South and asked, saying, look, you are not on the team. So what are your interest? What are the things you want? What are your concerns that we can put on the table on your behalf? We went through this very, very exhaustive exercise in the month of January. And of course, naturally, Uganda was a participant as well. And today, we would like to use the G20 presidency really to get that forum to focus on what is its remit, what was its mandate; which is global growth and global development and issues, which are very important for you; issues of green growth, issues of debt, issues of health, issues of SDG developmental agenda, issues of digital delivery. I think all these are really the issues on which we would like the G20 to focus on.
And finally, I am very conscious that Uganda will have the privilege of chairing the Non-Aligned Movement. Today, when I visit the Foreign Minister, as I did yesterday, when I called on the President, I will certainly on behalf of India, reiterate our fullest support for your very successful Chairship of the Non-Aligned Movement. It is something which, again, is a very important responsibility. But I think, you know, it's a responsibility, which certainly Uganda under the tall and experienced leader, like you have. We expect, again, the Non-Aligned Movement will get kind of a new energy under the Uganda Chairship.
So I thank you all. I cannot think of a better way of beginning my day. I will be after this of course, meeting my counterpart ministers, doing some of the inaugurations that I spoke to you about, but I leave one thought with all of you, whether it is collectively as a forum or individually you're all very welcome to India. When you come to the Parliament, I assure you, I'm an honorary member of every parliament forum. I try whenever any parliamentary delegation comes from abroad, to see, you know, somewhere in my parliamentary time, because I have an office in Parliament to find time to meet them. I would very much welcome all of you there in India. I welcome you there not just as an expression of friendship, I would also welcome you in India because it will give us a chance to really demonstrate some of our experiences and to see how (Inaudible) in someway, they may relate to the challenges and aspirations that you are looking at.
So once again, a very big thank you. I thank you High Commissioner and Honorable members, for arranging this meeting.
Kampala
April 11, 2023