PM Modi to travel to Nigeria, Brazil and Guyana this month

With focus on Africa, South America and the Caribbean, Indian Prime Minister Modi will be travelling to Nigeria, Brazil and Guyana starting November 16th. The first stop of the three-country tour will be the oil-rich West African country Nigeria, where PM Modi will be focusing on strengthening ties and will hold a meeting with President Bola Tinubu. Nigeria has the largest economy and is the most populated country on the African continent. The OPEC country was invited as one of the guest countries during the Delhi G20 summit in 2023.

The Indian Prime Minister will then travel to Brazil's Rio de Janeiro from November 17th to 19th for the annual G20 summit, a group of 20 leading economies of the world. India is part of the G20 troika, along with Brazil and South Africa, which is a transition governance structure in grouping. Last year, India hosted the summit in Delhi, during which the G20 Presidency gavel was handed by PM Modi to Brazilian President Luiz da Silva.

PM Modi travelled to Brazil in 2014 for the 6th BRICS Summit and in 2019 for the 11th BRICS Summit. In 2020, the then-Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro visited India, during which he was the chief guest at India's Republic Day celebrations.

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On the sidelines of the G20 summit, PM Modi is expected to hold bilateral meetings with several world leaders. The summit will see the attendance of several world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden. This will be the last major global summit President Biden attends ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump as US President on January 20th, 2025.

The last leg of PM Modi's visit will be to Guyana from the 19th to 21st of November. During the visit, PM will hold talks with President Irfaan Ali. India has significantly increased ties with the country in several domains, including defence, and energy. Delhi has been reaching out to Guyana with credit facilities for agriculture, information technology, and capacity building via the ITEC programme.

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The Indian diaspora in Guyana, known as Indo-Guyanese, is a significant part of the country, and, at 40 per cent, it constitutes the largest ethnic group in the South American country. Most of them trace their origin to the North Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand. President Ali himself is of Indian ancestry and was invited as the Chief Guest for the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention in India last year. The first group of Indians are known to have arrived in the country in 1838, over 180 years ago, to work in sugarcane plantations.

During the visit to Guyana, PM Modi will also chair the India CARICOM, or Caribbean summit. The summit is part of India's outreach to the Caribbean nations. The inaugural summit took place in 2019 in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Focus during the summit will be on trade, investments, and India's support for infrastructure projects in these countries.