Devirupa Mitra

Lusaka, Jan 6 Amid exuberant tribal dances and Bollywood songs, India and Zambia toasted each other to an "ever deepening" of relations, particularly in trade and investment, during the highest level visit from New Delhi in two decades.

On Tuesday night, visiting Indian Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari and his entire delegation were invited to a state banquet hosted by his Zambian counterpart George Kunda at a five-star hotel in Lusaka. He arrived from Delhi on Tuesday afternoon in Lusaka on the first leg of his three-nation African tour.

Appropriately, the state banquet began with a rendition of a song from a Bollywood film "Salaam-e-Ishq", which was an ode to everlasting love, by an all-male Zambian choir. The song was greeted with loud applause, especially from members of the Indian delegation and community.

The hall was filled to capacity with top Zambian officials and their spouses, as well as members of the Indian community.

After a Bharatnatyam recital by a member of the local Indian community, there was an exuberant display of energetic Zambian dance that was punctuated by applause from the audience.

The Zambian leader began his speech talking about historical ties, as well as the close relations between the two countries.

He pointed out that there has been a sharp increase in imports from Zambia to India by 91 percent from 2004 to 2008 when it reached $226 million.

"The Zambian side have tried to provide a conducive environment for investments here by Indian companies," said Kunda, pointing out that there have been some large investments by Indian public sector groups like BHEL and private conglomerates like the Tata Group.

Ansari felt that Zambia should take advantage of the lines of credit that India had announced after the India Africa Forum Summit in April 2008. "We would like Zambia to take advantage of the new initiatives announced at the India-Africa Forum Summit particularly in regard to concessional credit lines so as to promote trade between the two countries," he said.

He also urged Zambian companies to access funds provided by India under Preferential Trade Area Bank, the financial arm of Common Market for Eastern and Southern African States (Comesa).

Ansari finally ended with a toast to Zambia, its leaders and people and three words in Nyanja language which was received by loud approval — "Mulungu Adalise Zambia (God Bless Zambia)".