Modi arrives in Namibia, welcomed with traditional dance at the airport: PM joins in playing the drum; first Indian PM to visit in 27 years

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived in Namibia, a country in southern Africa. This is the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Namibia in 27 years.
PM Modi At Namibia Airport

After landing at the airport in the capital Windhoek, he was welcomed with a traditional dance performance. During the event, the Prime Minister also played the drum along with the performers.
Before PM Modi, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had visited Namibia in 1998. Earlier, in 1990, then-Prime Minister V.P. Singh, along with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and several other high-ranking leaders, had visited Namibia on the occasion of its Independence Day.

PM Modi playing Drum With Performers

Modi to meet President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah

Modi will meet President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah during his visit. Discussions are expected to focus on diamond trade, critical minerals, and uranium supply between the two countries.
In addition, Modi will also address the Namibian Parliament. His visit to Namibia is part of a five-nation tour from July 2 to July 10, which includes Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Brazil, and Namibia. Namibia is a mineral-rich country with abundant reserves of diamonds, uranium, copper, phosphate, and other resources.

Namibia Has the Largest Marine Diamond Reserves, But Doesn't Export Directly to India

Namibia holds the world’s largest reserve of marine diamonds. Beneath the sea, there are over 80 million carats of diamonds. However, Namibia does not directly export rough diamonds to India.

Instead, these diamonds reach Indian shores through global trading hubs like London, Antwerp, and others. PM Modi’s visit could help lay the foundation for direct diamond trade between the two countries.

This is especially important as many Indian diamond processing companies are already operating in Namibia.

India has invested over $800 million (around ₹6,600 crore) in Namibia across various sectors including mining, manufacturing, diamond processing, and services.

Apart from diamonds, Namibia also has reserves of cobalt, lithium, and rare earth elements—minerals crucial for India’s progress toward clean energy.

Namibia is also a major producer of uranium, which can support India’s civilian nuclear energy program.

In 2022, 8 Cheetahs Were Brought to India from Namibia on a Boeing 747

Namibia has the highest population of wild cheetahs in the world. On September 17, 2022, under a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Government of India and the Government of Namibia, the first batch of 8 African cheetahs was brought to India.

This group included 5 females and 3 males, aged between two and six years at the time. After being kept in quarantine for 9 days, Prime Minister Modi released the cheetahs into Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. PM Modi named one of the cheetahs "Asha." In December 2024, Asha gave birth to three cubs.

Transfer of Cheetahs from Namibia to India Was the World's First Intercontinental Cheetah Relocation

Due to hunting and deforestation in India, the African cheetah species had been extinct in the country for 70 years. They were officially declared extinct in India in 1952.

India is the only country in the world to which Namibia has transferred cheetahs for wild reintroduction. While a few cheetahs have been temporarily sent to institutions in the U.S. and Europe for scientific research, zoos, or population management, those transfers were on a very small scale and purely for conservation purposes.

Social News In Rajasthan

Bilateral Trade Between India and Namibia Reached ₹4,500 Crore Last Year

In recent years, bilateral trade between India and Namibia has seen significant growth. In the financial year 2024–25, the total trade between the two countries reached approximately ₹4,858 crore, with India exporting goods worth ₹2,798 crore and importing ₹2,061 crore from Namibia.

In the 2022–23 financial year, bilateral trade stood at around ₹2,320 crore, out of which India’s exports were ₹2,004 crore.

Between April and November 2023, trade saw a 178% increase, reaching around ₹5,500 crore. During this 8-month period, India’s exports were about ₹3,488 crore, and imports from Namibia stood at ₹1,962 crore.

By the end of March 2024, the total trade between the two countries had reached ₹6,735 crore, with India’s exports alone at ₹3,785 crore.