Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Ethiopia next week, marking the first trip by an Indian premier to the Horn of Africa nation in more than a decade, according to a report by WION News.
Modi is scheduled to arrive in Addis Ababa on 16 December for a two-day visit as part of a three-nation tour that includes Jordan (15–16 December) and Oman (17–18 December). The last Indian prime minister to visit Ethiopia was Manmohan Singh in 2011.
During his stay, Modi will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The two leaders last met on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg in 2023, where they discussed expanding cooperation in trade, investment, defence, information technology, agriculture, youth skills development, and people-to-people exchanges.
Abiy has also participated in India’s Voice of the Global South Summit, including the inaugural session in November 2023 and the third edition in August 2024, highlighting growing political engagement between the two countries.
Both Ethiopia and India are members of the expanded BRICS bloc, and Modi’s visit is expected to revive momentum toward the long-delayed fourth India–Africa Forum Summit. The last summit was held in New Delhi in 2015, following the 2011 edition in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia remains one of the largest African beneficiaries of India’s concessional lines of credit, with projects focusing on railways, sugar production and power transmission infrastructure. Thousands of Ethiopian professionals have also received training under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme, reflecting a long-standing South–South development partnership.
In addition to Ethiopia, Modi will visit Oman — his second trip after 2018 — and make his first full bilateral visit to Jordan, underscoring India’s expanding strategic and energy engagement in West Asia.