Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to script history by becoming the first prime minister to visit Rwanda on Monday with a special gift. The PM is planning to boost the relationship with the country by presenting 200 cows.

The move is part of Girinka, a pet project initiated by Rwandan President Paul Kagame to help poor families. Under the scheme, the poorest families are gifted cows by the government, and the family, in turn, will gift the female calf born to the neighbour. Conceived as a national social protection programme this year, Rwanda hopes to target 350,000 families with Girinka project.

The Rwandan president came up with the project as he realised that a cow for each family would not only help with their agricultural production, but also provide better nutrition to the malnourished children in the country.

PM Modi will travel to Rweru “specifically” to make this donation. The cows, which will be gifted by India, will be sourced from Rawanda itself, said secretary, economic relations, ministry of external affairs, T.S Tirumurti at a press briefing. As this programme had President Kagame’s “personal touch”, the MEA felt that “it was important that we get involved in it.”

READ ALSO:

Bugesera: Irreversible Pardon to Genocide Perpetrators

Going beyond the cow diplomacy, India also hopes to deepen its defence cooperation with Rwanda. On the cards will be agreements in dairy cooperation, leather and defence. It is a broad-based agreement, the details will be fleshed out, Tirumurti said.

Prime Minister Modi will also visit Uganda, another significant visit as the last time an Indian prime minister stopped by was 1997. He will then proceed to South Africa for the BRICS summit.

In the past year, India has made efforts to boost ties with Africa. There have been high profile visits to the continent by the president—who chose to start his stint abroad with Africa—the vice president, and the minister of external affairs. Interestingly, Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Rwanda soon after Modi leaves. The Chinese hope to sign agreements on trade, infrastructure and defence.

So are India and China in competition to woo Africa? When asked, Tirumurti denied any competition. “Our relations goes back to history, Gandhi and Apartheid,” he said. India’s relations with Africa were on “solid foundation of development cooperation and security”, he added. The defence agreement with Rwanda is just in that vein.

Last year, Chinese investments in Rwanda were estimated at $200 million.