——Promises Enhanced India-Africa Partnership
IPNEWS: India will shortly host the 4th edition of of the India-Africa Forum Summit; and International Big Cat Alliance Summit on May 28-31st in New Delhi.
Addressing the media on the heels of the summit, Ambassador Manoj Bihari Verma, tated that the summit will bring world leaders and Representatives from across the African continent, the African Union Commission and Regional Economic Communities.
The 4th India-Africa summit, is expeacted to adopt the “Delhi Declaration”; the first-ever global declaration on big cat conservation. The Summit’s theme is “Save Big Cats, Save Humanity, Save Ecosystem”.
Ambassador Verma, also stated that Fourth India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS-IV) is such summit in over a decade, and it remains a defining moment in India-Africa relations.
He said that immediately following the 4th edition of the India- Arica summit on 1st June, the ‘Big Cat Alliance International Summit” will be inaugurated, intended to advance coordinated global action on big cat conservation.
“Liberia’s participation in both summits reflects the growing stature of the India-Liberia partnership, and the Embassy of India in Monrovia is actively facilitating Liberia’s engagement with both these historic events.” Ambassador Verma highlighted.
The India-Africa Forum Summit. Or IAFS was established in 2008, and represented a bold vision, a platform for India and Africa to engage as true partners: partners in development, in solidarity and in shaping a more just and multipolar world.
The Third Summit was held in New Delhi in October 2015. Over a decade has passed since then, a decade of vast and positive transformation for both India and Africa. India’s relationship with the continent has seen wide-ranging enhancement in every area of cooperation, and the upcoming Summit will provide the right platform for taking this partnership confidently forward.
The programme will begin with a Senior Officials Meeting on 28 May, followed by the India-Africa Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on 29 May, culminating in the Leaders’ Summit on 31 May.
Alongside the formal Summit meetings, there will be an India-Africa Business Dialogue and Exhibition on 29 and 30 May, aimed at strengthening commercial partnerships, investment linkages and private-sector collaboration between India and African countries. In addition, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), will organise an India-Africa Dance and Music Festival in New Delhi to celebrate the rich cultural ties and people-to-people connections that unite our two continents.” Ambassador Manoj Bihari Verma stressed.
He narrated hat the Summit’s agenda is ambitious and wide-ranging. Political and strategic cooperation; peace, security and governance; economic transformation and trade; education and human development; connectivity and infrastructure; digital public infrastructure; space technology, innovation and artificial intelligence; climate action and environmental sustainability; and cultural and people-to-people exchanges – all of these will feature prominently. India has taken a consultative, demand-driven approach, ensuring that the Summit’s outcomes respond to Africa’s priorities.
Since IAFS-III, India has opened 17 new diplomatic missions across the African continent, including this Embassy here in Monrovia, established in 2021, bringing India’s total diplomatic presence in Africa to 46 missions. That is a concrete and visible demonstration of India’s long-term commitment to this continent and to this partnership.
IAFS-IV is our collective opportunity, as India and Africa, to recommit and re-imagine what this partnership can achieve in the years ahead. A forward-looking outcome document is being finalised, with officials firmly committed to deliver, as they have put it, “concrete outcomes that matter to Africa.”
The New Delhi gathering on June 1st is entirely different, but equally historic in nature, the first-ever Summit of the International Big Cat Alliance.
“The IBCA is a first-of-its-kind inter-governmental international organisation, headquartered in India and launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in 2023. Its mandate is: conservation of seven of the world’s most iconic big cat species – the Tiger, Lion, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Cheetah, Jaguar, and Puma.
The IBCA currently has 25 member countries, and I am proud to note that Liberia is among them. Liberia ratified the IBCA Framework Agreement on 8 January 2025, making it one of the early committed members of this global alliance. Liberia’s remarkable biodiversity and forest ecosystems make this membership not only appropriate, but genuinely meaningful.
The IBCA Summit will be attended by Heads of State and Government, conservation practitioners, scientists, and partner organisations from 95 big cat range countries across Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Over 400 conservationists and policymakers are expected to participate.” a statement rom Ambassador Manoj Bihari Verma read.
Touching on India-Liberia relations,Ambassador Manoj Bihari Verma, stated that India and Liberia share a relationship built on friendship, trust and mutual understanding.
He recounted that India stood with Liberia during its most difficult periods, through the years of civil conflict and during pandemics. India’s all-women UN peacekeeping contingent, deployed to Liberia in 2007, remains a proud and lasting symbol of our partnership and our shared values.
“Our bilateral relationship has grown steadily and has seen remarkable momentum over the past year in particular in diplomacy, trade, development cooperation, capacity building, culture and people-to-people exchanges.
A nine-member Multi-Party Parliamentary Delegation led by Dr. Shrikant Eknath Shinde, Member of Parliament, visited Liberia from May 31 to June 3, 2025. The delegation met President of Liberia H.E. Mr. Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr., Foreign Minister, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, reinforcing a shared commitment to zero tolerance for terrorism. Another important engagement was the first India-Liberia UN Consultations held in New Delhi on December 29, 2025, where India affirmed its support for Liberia’s tenure on the UN Security Council.
We have also significantly scaled up our development cooperation. ITEC training slots have been doubled from 70 to 140, and ICCR scholarships have increased five-fold to 20. More than 150 Liberians travelled to India in 2025 under various training and scholarship programmes, covering fields as diverse as mining safety,nursing, trauma care, public administration, film and media studies.”Ambassador Manoj Bihari Verma noted.
On cultural cooperation, Ambassador Manoj Bihari Verma, said INdia and Liberia cultural Cooperation is flourishing. Recently, a 15-member Liberian cultural troupe participated in the Surajkund International Crafts Mela in India earlier this year. And in December 2025, India and Liberia signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding on Pharmacopoeia cooperation; enabling Liberia to utilise Indian standards for medicine quality regulation, with direct benefits for Liberian public health.
“As we approach these important events from 29 May to 1 June, I invite all of you journalists, editors, commentators, opinion leaders, to view and cover these summits not as distant diplomatic occasions, but as developments with real significance for Liberia, Africa, and the future of south-south cooperation.
The Embassy of India in Monrovia stands ready to be your partner in covering these historic events. We will share updates and relevant information regularly. We encourage you to follow the proceedings through the official summit website at www.iafs2026.in and www.ibcasummit.org, as well as, on our social media platform @IndiainLiberia.
In the words of India’s External Affairs Minister, Dr. S. Jaishankar: “Together, India and Africa are not just partners in development – we are partners in shaping a better world.”
This is our season of renewal, for India and Africa, for conservation, and for the longstanding friendship between India and Liberia.” a statement from Ambassador Manoj Bihari Verma, concludes.
