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Indian PM Modi eyes Namibian minerals as part of state visit

Jul 7, 2025, 8:41am EDT
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The leaders of India and Ghana.
Francis Kokoroko/Reuters

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Namibia this week in a bid to strengthen ties with the resource-rich nation.

It’s his second and final stop in Africa on a five-nation tour that began in Ghana last week, sandwiched around a visit to Brazil for the BRICS summit. In Namibia, Modi is expected to discuss access to critical minerals such as cobalt and lithium, uranium supplies, and the diamond trade — with the African country home to rich deposits in all.

The visit “is being seen as pivotal in India’s quest for critical minerals essential to new-age technologies and electric vehicles,” reported The Times of India. The Indian premier is also likely to emphasize the idea of south-south cooperation during his tour. “He’ll want to refute notions that India is a perennial underdog or a neo-colonialist in a new scramble for Africa,” wrote a researcher in The Conversation.

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