Today’s Diplomacy column has come up with Ambassador of India to Ethiopia Anurag Srivastava. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1999.
Before his present appointment, he headed the political wing at the Indian High Commission in Colombo, where, along with other responsibilities, he was closely involved in formulation and implementation of India’s Development Assistance Projects.
He has been in diplomatic career for twenty years now. He was posted in Sri Lanka and had been actively working to strengthen diplomatic relations with his country. He was posted in Ethiopia in 2016 as Indian Ambassador to Ethiopia. Apart from Ethio-Indian cases, representing his country he participate in African Union.
The Ethiopian Herald had a while with Ambassador Anurag Srivastava: excerpts
The Ethiopian Herald: What are the missions and objectives of the embassy since it has been established?
Ambassador Anurag: Well, I would like to say that India and Ethiopia started relation two hundred years back. We are very old civilizations and cultures but young countries. Our diplomatic relations were officially started in 1950. In fact, in 1948 the relation got off the ground at delegation level.
Ethiopia is among the first African countries to open embassy soon after our independence in 1947. We are celebrating the 70th year establishment of our diplomatic ties. The celebration was started in 2018.
As embassy, our mission is to strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries and cooperation in various spheres such as social, cultural, political, commercial, economic, and science and technology.
In each of these areas, the two countries have managed to realize the full potential of their relation. I would like to say our relations focus on tresses. These are the priorities. They have been the focus area of our relationship.
One is our strong relationship in commercial. India is among the top three economic partners of Ethiopia.
The second is capacity building.We had historical connection with Ethiopia in the field of education. The third is cultural relation. We share a lot of cultural communalities.
The aforementioned relations form the bedrock of our strong relationship.
Herald: What must be done to strengthen Ethio-Indian relation down the road?
Ambassador Anurag: We are working closely with our partners in Ethiopia to strengthen the relations. We are partners with Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Innovation and Technology, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.Our partners are not confined to only off shoots of government
In addition, we are also working with the non-governmental institutions and agencies in the countries. We are working with universities where we have sizeable Indian instructors and schools for cultural ties specially to promote yoga. Our stakeholders are also the common people of Ethiopia in many ways. The ordinary visa seekers who travel to India for health case and students who are seeking scholarship education are considered as our stakeholders.
All of us agree that this relationship is very important for both countries and we need to work together to ensure the realization of its full potential.
Herald: What Kinds of support have you extended so far to the country and community at large?
Ambassador Anurag: Well, this is a very timely question. If we look at the past two weeks we had carried out significant projects which focused on the community. The first project is called Jaipur a very setup camp. It is the largest organization in the field of artificial limbs in the world. It is based in Jaipur India to partner with us and to provide artificial limbs for the people in need of them here in Ethiopia. For a month the entire team was here. They were based in the Saint Paul Hospital. We were working closely with the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs on the project.
More than five hundred people did benefit from this project. At the end of the camp we found five hundred satisfied people who went back. They were people who lived without leg or hand for years. In a few hours they went back walking. This is really what strongly connected us with the community.
The other project is innovation program. India- Ethiopia Innovation program was conceived early last year.During its launch, we announced that we would like to have the benefits of Indian innovation felt in Ethiopia. In the project period of five years we want to transfer great successful innovations from India to Ethiopia. The objective of the program is to foster technological transfer and to create the culture of entrepreneurship and job creation.
In the first year when we put out The Call in India we received more than two hundred applications which we have short listed. Then, we held innovation expo here last month. The innovators came with various sectors selected by Ethiopian government. The response from the Ethiopian innovators was even better. We received a sizeable number of responses. We managed to short list 51 Ethiopian candidates who want to partner with 31 Indian companies. In this process, we have reached now where a situation is we set out to set up 50 enterprises in the period of five years. For the first time we have got at least 25 to 30 successes. We hope to take this forward.
Broadly in terms of our capacity building and scholarship, I think we have the largest scholarship programs in the world. More than one Ethiopian got flight daily to India to benefit training or scholarship program fully funded by Indian government.
Herald: Were there possible challenges the India embassy faced in fully realizing its set goals?
Ambassador Anurag:Well, when you set out to do something and you have willing partners who are with you in the process the road will not be rocky. The partners are mentioned above. There are problems and issues one faces in realizing set goals. We have various bilateral mechanisms exactly settled for this purpose. For example we have a joint commission mechanism which discuses all bilateral issues at the level of foreign ministry of two countries. This team met May last year when the Ethiopian Minster of Foreign Affairs traveled to India to solve problems and issues and ways forward as well as to set a goal.
Similarly, they have another mechanism at the level of foreign office and trade commission to discuss issues. What I want to say is that while the relationship is wide as deep as broad between India and Ethiopia, it may encounter certain problems and issues. For example, our investors and teachers may face issues here but I think what is most important is that both sides are conscious of what we need to work together to address and solve challenges we face.
Herald: Could you relate to us about the contributions of Indian embassy in capacity building, socio-economic turnaround of the Ethiopian community?
Ambassador Anurag: Our capacity building operates at two levels. We have capacity building at the level of individuals and institutions. At the individual level, the scholarship is taken by Indian technical and economic cooperation which is among the largest to any country in the world. India is taking 400 slots by covering the whole budgets from medicine to journalism, accountancy, management, rural developmentand among others.
Then, we have something for graduates, undergraduates, post-graduates, doctoral, post-doctoral levels. These are scholarship under the Indian cultural relationships. To add to this, the government of India has launched Study in India program two years back. Study in India program offers more than six educational opportunities in the top Indian institutions. We had an exhibition fair to feature Study in India program earlier this month. We found that the response was to the expected level. This shows India is a preferable education destination for Ethiopian students.
At the institutions level, we have training in the leather, metal sector and textile sectors, among others. We are also partners with various industries to offer them crossboarder training opportunities.
For the distance learning, we have a program called Pan-Africa Network Program. The Pan Africa network program tries to benefit distance education as well as medical consultations by partnering with the best institutions in India. Again, these programs connect universities and hospitals in Ethiopia and India. Largely these are what we are doing in capacity building.
In addition, we have a large business community here. There are more than six hundred registered Indian companies here. The Indian business is forum the large Indian investment here. We always encourage them to take out the projects. They do a lot of social cooperative projects. We have Indian Women’s Association which conducts a lot of charitable activities for people here.
Other than that, we understand that as a government the projects that we do in the humanitarian sector have a large outreach. So, you know that our president after taking office has made his first visit to Ethiopia in October 2017. We announced some major projects in the area of health and education.
One is two million dollar worth.It had been handed over to Ethiopia. Second, hundred thousand metric tons of rice was provided to Ethiopia.
And hundreds of thousands school text bookshave just arrived and will be handover soon. Not only the government, we encourage our humanitarian Indian community in Ethiopia to actively participate in this regards.
Herald: What Ethiopians should learn from Indian people?
Ambassador Anurag: First, I found a lot of similarities between peoples of Ethiopia andIndian. The way we eat, dress, value systems, families, and general outlooks towards life and world are somewhat similar. I think that is what has drawn us together. Even, our country and society are similar in many ways. Both countries are much diversified countries. Our countries are based on the guarantee that arises from unity in diversity. There is a certain degree of coexistence and tolerance among the people. As a country, we learn to live in coexistence appreciating diversity.
If you look at another dimension, in terms of economic development,what Ethiopia is undergoing now is what India underwent maybe 30 years back. I think you are at a very juncture point in history. What I would like to advice is you are experiencing now what happened to pass in India in 1991. When the economy opens up, there will be even brighter prospects for our relations as well as for our engagement in commerce. We can offer our own learning from our experiences.
Herald: Does the embassy set destinations on economy, political and military diplomacy with Ethiopia? If yes, could you brief us about love?
Ambassador Anurag:These three are very important components of relationships. Political relationships are very close. In terms of our economic relations we are proud of the fact that we are preferable partner—economic and strategic partner of Ethiopia. We would like to continue that. Therefore, regarding our economic engagement we need to identify newer areas to focus on. For example our investment needs to look at new areas like food processing, renewable energy and health sector— setting hospitals in Ethiopia.
In terms our defense cooperation, it is a relationship which is so far focused on training and exchange of visits. We are having a defense expo next month in Ethiopia and African defense and Ministers’ meeting. The idea is to enhance our relation in defense and security.
Herald: Could you tell us about the ongoing Indian projects in Ethiopia?
Ambassador Anurag: Our major projects are under concessional program. The three projects the Finchaa Sugar factory has completed and handed over to Ethiopia. The Asendabo and Wonji projects had seen the light of day and the factories are on works.
Then, our projects in our humanitarian sectors,which I have told you about, are in medicine, food, book, and among others. Other than that, we have a wider choice of projects we have undertaken and we are looking to undertake along with other countries in Africa. They are under the umbrella of India Africa forum summit. In fact these are the part of India Africa forum which India made at the third India Africa forum in India, October 2015 which was to deliver to billon dollar concessional credit project, to deliver six hundred million dollars grants and to deliver about fifty thousand capacity building slot over period of years.
Other than the bilateral projects, we are working as the regional and pan-African level. Ethiopia is a partner of the projects.
Herald: Does the embassy work on the cultural diplomacy?
Ambassador Anurag: Cultural diplomacy is an important part of our relationship. In fact it is bedrock of relationships. We share lots of things. One is the interest of Indian cinema in Ethiopia. We have planned to bring our movie and subtitle them in Amharic. The other thing is yoga. After we celebrated the international yoga day, we are happy to see that yoga system is pulling down roots in Ethiopia. There are local yoga teachers along with us to drive home yoga’s benefits. In 2019 more than one thousand five hundred people participated which shows the green popularity of Ethiopian yoga people.
Cuisine is among the similarity of the two countries in terms of using spices. There are quite popular Indian restaurant in Ethiopia and also we have food festival to council with our national day. We have showcased certain Indian popular aspects.
Music is also among the commonalities. On the memory of Mahatma Gandhi celebration we launch an album along with Beti G. Her songs are in the language of state and region of his.
Herald: What are the embassy’s plans down the road?
Ambassador Anurag:We need to strengthen and consolidate our gains and several of our relationships in political, cultural, commercial, educational spheres and among other. We have to find newer areas and further forge our relationships. Ethiopia is a very important country for us. Perhaps our relation is the most important relationships in Africa. We realize the potential of this country politically and economically. We would like to continue to be bilateral partner of Ethiopia as well as preferred strategic and economic partner.
Herald: If you have something to add you are welcome
Ambassador Anurag: I am talking to you at a very important landmark. We are celebrating our national day. We are marking the 78 of the union republic. If I look back, last year was also a very important year for Ethiopia. Dr. Abiy Ahmed came to power and won Nobel Peace Prize. It was the recognition of his message peace and reconciliation for country and region.
In addition, the past couple of years we are celebrating another landmark which is the completion of 70 years of our bilateral relations. It is something which I feel significant year. We are starting this year with renewed hope and optimism. My message would be hope and optimism. I am confident that we will continue to work together and I wish greatness, prosperity, and peace for both countries.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition 26 January 2020
By Ambo Mekassa
