Jaishankar in Namibia: first Indian foreign minister to visit, mentions Project Cheetah

The rise of India is unstoppable and the country is taking its place in the world, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar has said, citing India's strong economic growth, its strong relationships abroad and the support of the diaspora worldwide.

Jaishankar arrived in Namibia on Sunday, the first visit by an Indian external affairs minister to the African nation.

Addressing the Indian community, Jaishankar said in many ways India is now a much more capable country, a much more confident country, and that way more “recognised around the world." He said that India is moving in the right direction and is conscious that there are a lot of challenges ahead.

“…With strong relationships and with good, proud Indians contributing abroad, and with growth at home — we are very clear, the rise of India is unstoppable," the minister said.

"Today we are the most populous country, we are the fifth largest economy and we will hopefully become third very, very soon...Today, India is taking its place in the world and that is something which all Indians should be very proud of," he added.

“When as foreign minister I go out in the world, especially in Africa and Latin America and other parts of Asia, I cannot tell you how much goodwill we have,” the minister said.

He praised the Indian community abroad and said as the Indian diaspora gets the benefit of the country’s image abroad, India also gets benefits from the diaspora’s image in foreign countries.

He also highlighted various projects of cooperation between the two nations.

Jaishanakar said Namibia is India's first partner in a very interesting initiative to translocate cheetahs.

"It is something which we feel has now become a bigger initiative. There is something called a big cat Alliance in which all the countries that have tigers, lions, and cheetahs of various types are trying to get together to see how by working together, we can actually increase the number of big cats across the world," he said.