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 India |  Zambia |
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India–Zambia relations are bilateraldiplomatic relations between theRepublic of India and theRepublic of Zambia. India maintains aHigh Commission of India in Lusaka that is concurrently accredited toMalawi while Zambia has a High Commission inNew Delhi.
India and Zambia have cordial relations. TheIndian freedom struggle inspiredKenneth Kaunda and Zambia's independence movement. India has supported Zambia's economic and technological development while it has supported India on international fora onthe issue of Jammu and Kashmir,terrorism andIndia's nuclear tests in 1998. Zambia has also extended support to India's claim for permanent membership of an expandedUN Security Council.PresidentsKaunda,Frederick Chiluba andLevy Mwanawasa have paidstate visits to India whilePresidentsV V Giri,Neelam Sanjiva Reddy andR Venkataraman andPrime MinistersIndira Gandhi andRajiv Gandhi have led Indian state visits to Zambia.[1]
Vice PresidentHamid Ansari made anofficial visit in 2010 to Zambia where he extended India's incentives to Zambia.[2]
In 2018,Indian PresidentRam Nath Kovind visitedEquatorial Guinea,Swaziland, andZambia from April 7 to 12 to strengthen relations with these countries. On April 10, he arrived inLusaka, where he metZambian PresidentEdgar Chagwa Lungu. His agenda included discussions, astate banquet, interaction with theIndian community, and abusiness event.[3]
Trade betweenIndia andZambia amounted to $200 million in 2010.[4] Indian exports to Zambia includepharmaceuticals, transport equipment,plastics andchemicals whilesemi-precious stones,non-ferrous metals,ores (copper andcobalt) andraw cotton constitute Indian imports from Zambia.[5] India and Zambia aim to increase this trade to $1 billion and Zambia has been seeking investments from India in its coreeconomic sectors.[6][7]
Bilateral trade between India and Zambia was $1 billion in 2016-17, with India mainly importingcopper. Indianinvestments in Zambia reached nearly $5 billion, primarily inmining.
Since 2007,foreign direct investments from India into the Zambian economy has amounted to $3 billion. This includes a $2.6 billion investment byVedanta Resources inKonkola Copper Mines, the establishment of a $300 millionmanganese processing plant by Taurian Manganese andBharti Airtel's establishment of Airtel Zambia after its acquisition of Zain Telecom's African businesses.[8]
India has for long extended government credit to Zambia to facilitate its development and trade between the countries. Support has included soft loans from India'sExim Bank and the donation of transport equipment, agricultural equipment and emergency medical supplies to Zambia.[5] DuringVice PresidentHamid Ansari's visit to Zambia in 2010, India extendedlines of credit worth $125 million to Zambia to enable it to expand its power generation capacity and to establish the joint venture, 120 MW,Itezhi Tezhi hydropower project.[9] Zambia is also part of the Duty Free, Quota Free (DFQF) regime for its exports to India as aLeast Developed Country and part of theGovernment of India's lines of credit programme.[10]
India extends technical cooperation to Zambia for training its defence and civilian personnel through theIndian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme.Indian armed forces personnel have also been deputed to Zambia to help train theZambian armed forces. Several Zambian defence chiefs have been trained in India and since 1994 a Military Advisory Team of fourIndian Army officers have been posted to theDefence Services Command and Staff College in Zambia.[5][10]
India also provided lines of credit in various sectors and trained a significant number of Zambian armed forces personnel.[11]
