While Prime Minister Narendra Modi will tour Europe for the India-Nordic summit and visits to Italy and Netherlands in mid-May, India is expected to host the fourth edition of the Africa Summit on May 31. Several African leaders could attend the summit. The top leaders of Vietnam and Cyprus are also expected to visit India in May.
Besides the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting scheduled for mid-May, there are attempts to host a Quad foreign ministers’ meeting in May coinciding with the US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s visit to Delhi. The situation in West Asia will dominate the meeting of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) grouping, indicated people familiar with the issue.
The PM has been invited to visit Kenya in May for the France-Africa Summit, where India is an invitee. Kenya is a key pillar of India’s Indian Ocean Region (IOR) strategy. The summit will be held in Nairobi on May 11-12, marking the first time a non-Francophone African nation is hosting the event, focusing on redefining partnerships through innovation and growth. It will focus on youth employment, economic partnerships and security. France is seeking to partner India for a trilateral partnership in Africa, particularly in the IOR states. Several African nations located along the Indian Ocean are English-speaking countries.
The India-Nordic Summit was scheduled last year but had to be postponed in the aftermath of the April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attack and Operation Sindoor. Key areas of focus under India-Nordic cooperation include implementing trade and economic partnership agreements, green energy initiatives, technology collaboration and maritime cooperation between India and Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. India-Norway economic partnership has expanded since the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement was concluded in 2024.
The India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement, signed on March 10, 2024, and effective from October 1, 2025, is a landmark pact between India and the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). It aims to boost investment by $100 billion and create one million jobs in India over 15 years.
Modi is expected to visit Italy on a bilateral engagement following PM Giorgia Meloni’s invitation. India-Italy relations are on an upward trajectory, with regular high level interactions, ministerial dialogues and growing engagements at private sector level. Both sides have agreed on a Joint Strategic Action Plan 2025-29, particularly in trade and economy, technology, space, research and innovation, defence and security, counterterrorism, renewable energy, education and people-to-people ties.