India and Ghana have been longstanding partners and advocates of the Global South, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday, noting that the two countries have several similar programmes as they face comparable challenges as developing nations.
Jaishankar, who arrived in Ghana on Tuesday as part of his three-nation African tour, made the remarks after meeting his Ghanaian counterpart Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa. He said initiatives such as Ghana’s Accra Reset and Feed Ghana have parallels in India’s Ayushman Bharat and programmes aimed at farmers’ welfare and food security.
“Now, when we look at Ghana from an Indian perspective, of course, for us, you have been historic partners. We have both been champions of the Global South before that term was even invented,” he said.
“And we have, I think, in the world, in difficult circumstances, stood up for the independence and the self-reliance and the dignity of countries who were earlier colonised,” he added.
Jaishankar said it was a pleasure to be here on his first visit to Ghana, to follow up on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's historic visit last year.
Prime Minister Modi visited Ghana in July 2025. That was the prime minister’s first-ever bilateral visit to Ghana. It was also the first prime ministerial visit from India to Ghana in three decades.
Jaishankar said that as both countries have established a comprehensive partnership, “we need to live up to that”. He said the bilateral dimension of the relationship was the focus of their talks, and how to take it to the next level.
The minister said that in his discussion with Ablakwa and President John Dramani Mahama, he pointed out how there are many programmes and initiatives being undertaken in Ghana that are very similar to those in India.
He said the challenges of the developing world are by nature shared, and tend to be in very similar, parallel domains.
“So whether it is a programme like Accra Reset, which deals with health, we have something similar in Ayushman Bharat. You have Feed Ghana, which focuses on food security; we have programmes dedicated to farmers' prosperity and the promotion of millets,” he said.
“You have the goal of 1 million coders; we have our programmes on Digital India and Startup India.”
Jaishankar said that given these similarities, it was very natural for India and Ghana as countries of the Global South to pool their experience and see what they can do to support each other.
He said that other than the two agreements signed on agricultural research and training, and on biodiversity, both countries are looking at more cooperation in pharmaceuticals and health, in mining, in defence, in railways, and in digital.
The two countries exchanged a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Zoological Survey of India and the University of Ghana for cooperation in academics, scientific research, and capacity building.
An MoU between the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, and CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Ghana for cooperation in Agricultural Research and Education was also exchanged in the presence of the two ministers.
The minister said that he was pleased to see the Indian business community thriving in the country.
“We have a longstanding, very vibrant Indian community. And the business part of that community, I think, has really been a living bridge between us,” he said.
“So we really do believe today that our partnership would help in strengthening resilience, in promoting inclusion, in ensuring that growth really delivers for our people in what is otherwise a very turbulent and complicated world,” he added.
Jaishankar said India values the role Ghana has historically played in the African Union context, where it will be assuming the chairship next year, and also in ECOWAS.
“We have very deep, longstanding partnerships with both organisations, and I think Ghana's role is something which is very widely appreciated in India,” he said.
Ghana is a founding member of ECOWAS, a 15-member regional bloc dedicated to economic, social, and political integration across West Africa.
Ghanaian President Mahama will assume the presidency of the African Union in 2027.
Both countries are members of the Commonwealth, and there are issues which both are equally devoted to pursuing, he said.
“We certainly applaud Ghana's commitment to reparatory justice and to the restitution of cultural properties, and the very important resolution moved in the UN General Assembly by Ghana, with a follow-up meeting that took place here, in which we also participated,” he said.
In the UN, Ghana has been a very powerful voice of advocacy for realising and meeting the sustainable development goals, which unfortunately have fallen behind this decade because of multiple conflicts, COVID and other challenges, the minister said.
“We also value Ghana's participation in some international initiatives that India has led. The International Solar Alliance is one of them; Ghana is a founding member. The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure is another,” he said.
“I think the world is moving towards multipolarity, towards its natural diversity. And it's incumbent on countries like us, who have been through difficult experiences in our history, to stand up as voices of independence,” Jaishankar said.
(With Inputs From PTI)
