India expects “unprecedented” participation at the third India-Africa Forum Summit, which gets underway here on Tuesday.
“This is a summit of 56 representatives — 54 from Africa, the African Union, and our Prime Minister. We are confident that in an unprecedented development, every institution and country invited will be present for the summit, when our PM takes the floor on October 29.
“This summit will be a gathering of every country in Africa, the African Union and India, which is unprecedented in the annals of any summit between Africa and another country,” Syed Akbaruddin, Chief Coordinator of the Summit, told newspersons on Monday.
Declining to get into specifics of who all will be attending, Akbaruddin said that rather than giving a listing of who all are attending, he would rather give a flavour of those attending, adding that some leaders like the King of Morocco and Swaziland are already here. Besides, some like the President of Guinea, who was elected recently, will also be present.
“We will have representation across boundaries and different sectors. It will be a day full of leaders only speaking,” he added.
Akbaruddin pointed out that the number of speakers at the Summit is so high that it has been agreed that only the leaders will speak in the Summit while Foreign Ministers will only get a chance to speak on Tuesday.
“Those Foreign Ministers who are leading their delegations will be given pride of place on Tuesday. They will be present at the plenary of the Summit but only those at the level (of the Indian PM) or above will be given an opportunity to speak at the plenary,” he said.