Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amb Gabriel Tanimu Aduda, on Wednesday, met with the Minister of State for External Affairs, Government of India, Shri. V. Muraleedharan, in New Delhi on deepening bilateral relations between the two countries.
Aduda and Muraleedharan discussed issues of the Nigeria/India Joint Commission which Nigeria is expected to host the next meeting.
They also discussed the second Nigeria/ India Consular Dialogue proposed to hold in the second quarter of the year in Abuja.
Amb Aduda extolled the efforts of the Indian government towards considering one-time amnesty to Nigerian citizens who have overstayed in the country, so as to allow for their return home to Nigeria.
He was accompanied by Ambassador Ahmed Sule, High Commissioner of Nigeria to India with concurrent accreditations to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal On his part, Hon Muraleedharan also expressed optimism that the meeting will be a platform to finalise the outstanding MOUs between Nigeria and India for the mutual benefit of both countries.
He informed that India is looking forward to participating at the National Security Adviser’s meeting proposed to take place in July 2022 in Abuja.
The permanent secretary had earlier in the day taken a tour of the chancery, the residence and staff quarters, after which he met with the officers of the High Commission of Nigeria at the chancery.
He had a heart-to-heart interaction with the staff on official matters, amongst other issues.
Aduda expressed satisfaction with the ongoing transformation in the mission and appreciated the visionary leadership of the High Commissioner, Amb. Ahmed Sule.
He was in india as part of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation delegation to monitor and supervise first hand the ongoing IPPIS Human Resource physical Verification Exercise being conducted by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation for the heads of mission and officers in the Asian region.
The exercise is expected to be concluded on Thursday, 17 March 2022.
