New Delhi:
As India celebrates its 70th Republic Day, most of us will be glued to our TV sets to watch the brilliant parade on Delhi’s Rajpath. Just like every year, this year also, the Republic Day parade will be broadcast live on Doordarshan, India’s national broadcaster. But for those of you not much of a TV person, Doordarshan has also made arrangements for the live streaming of the Republic Day parade. You can catch all the action on Doordarshan’s YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/JM9DjOSTnr4). The Republic Day parade will begin from Vijay Path and will proceed towards the Red Fort grounds through India Gate, Tilak Marg, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg and Netaji Subhash Marg. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is the Chief Guest of the Republic Day celebrations this year.
"New beginnings to old partnerships. PM @narendramodi warmly welcomes President of #SouthAfrica @CyrilRamaphosa ahead of delegation level talks. This is their fourth meeting within a year, highlighting enhanced engagement with South Africa & the African continent," Raveesh Kumar, Spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs, tweeted. In another tweet, he said, "Fortifying strategic partnership. PM @narendramodi and South African President @CyrilRamaphosa held wide-ranging talks on cooperation in defence & security, trade & investment, skill development, S&T, education and technical cooperation and multilateral forums."
Ahead of the Republic Day celebrations, India and South Africa on Friday announced a three-year strategic programme to expand ties in several key areas such as defence, maritime security and trade and investment after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held extensive talks with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. In his statement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said both sides will discussed all aspects of the bilateral ties with an aim to further expand cooperation in diverse areas.
The 'strategic programme of cooperation' is aimed at deepening the bilateral engagement and ensuring that a "result oriented" partnership benefits people of both the countries. The South African president, who arrived here on Friday morning on a two-day visit, will be chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations on Saturday. Calling India a "strategic partner" of South Africa, Ramaphosa said he was "most honoured" to have been invited for the Republic Day celebrations.
On his part, Modi said the economic relations between the two sides are burgeoning and the bilateral trade stands at more than USD 10 billion. India is the second largest trading partner of South Africa. This time South Africa participated in the Vibrant Gujarat as a partner country and Indian companies are taking part in the efforts to boost investment efforts by President Ramaphosa, the prime minister said.
