Indian Navy Ship Jalashwa arrives at Port Anjouan in Comoros with 1000 MT rice

Indian Naval Ship Jalashwa that is carrying a consignment of 1000 metric tonnes of rice reached the port of Anjouan in Comoros on Sunday. It will be received by the Foreign Minister of Comoros H.E. Dhoihir Dhoulkamal during a ceremony tomorrow, as per a tweet by the official Twitter handle of Embassy of India in Antananarivo, Madagascar & Comoros

Tagging Indian Diplomacy and External Affairs Minister, the embassy communicated the news with a video in which the naval ship can be seen arriving at the port. 

During a brief visit to Comoros in October 2019, the Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu had promised to send this consignment of 1000 metric tonnes as food assistance. 

Next stop Ehoala  

After handing over the consignment to the Foreign Minister of Comoros H.E. Dhoihir in the ceremony on March 15, the INS Jalashwa will travel straight to the Port of Ehoala to deliver another consignment comprising 1000 metric tonnes of rice and 1,00,000 tablets of HCQ, which was promised by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in response to an appeal made by the country for solidarity and assistance in dealing with the humanitarian crisis in the South of Madagascar caused due to severe drought. 

INS Jalashwa also had onboard the Indian Naval training team which will be deployed in Madagascar for capacity building and training of the Malagasy Special Forces for two weeks. The team was deboarded at the port of Antisiranana in Madagascar on March 12. 

It is pertinent to mention here that India and Madagascar share a cooperative bond in the defence sector. In March 2018, when the President of India visited Madagascar, the two countries entered into a Memorandum of Understanding for defence cooperation while many bilateral cooperation projects are still under discussion.