Maputo: In a significant bid to boost food security, India on Thursday signed a long term agreement for purchase of pulses from Mozambique as the two sides decided to fast-track cooperation in the agricultural sector.

“Mozambique’s strengths are also the areas of India’s need,” Modi said in a joint press statement with Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi following delegation-level talks here. “And what Mozambique requires is available in India,” he said.

Observing that Nyusi had highlighted agricultural development as his top priority, he said experts from both sides have since held discussions on how to work together to improve agricultural infrastructure and productivity in Mozambique.

Stating that the both the countries were strengthening their partnership in food security, he said, “India’s commitment to buy pulses from Mozambique would help meet India’s requirement. It will also facilitate long-term investments in commercial farming, generate farm employment and raise farmer’s incomes in this country.”

Two other memorandums of understanding were also signed - one on cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking and the other on youth affairs and sports. Modi said the agreement signed between the two sides on prevention of drug trafficking was a testimony to the shared determination to combat the menace of terrorism and its networks.

Modi said he and Nyusi have agreed to strengthen the bilateral defence and security relationship in view of the emerging strategic and security challenges in the maritime domain.

At a banquet hosted in his honour by Nyusi, Modi said that India wanted to build on its already flourishing trade and investment ties with Mozambique. Mozambique is the destination of around a quarter of India’s investments in Africa totalling around USD 8 billion.

Modi also visited the Mozambique National Assembly and met its President Veronica Macamo. “Prime Minister lauded the fact that 93 out of 250 Mozambican parliamentarians were women,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup told the media.

This is Modi’s first official visit to mainland Africa and is also the first prime ministerial visit from India to Mozambique in 34 years since the visit of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1982. Apart from Mozambique and South Africa, he will also visit Tanzania and Kenya during his African sojourn.

IANS