The important announcement made by the Indian High Commission to Uganda that Uganda has signed a memorandum of understanding with the administration of India in order to maintain the East African country’s Sukhoi fighter jets.
“Historic India-Uganda’ Memorandum of Understanding signed at Kampala for the maintenance of Su-30 and at the same time to support technically by HAL, India. This is the first and foremost defense agreement with India to Uganda following OM Modi’s unveiling of ’10 Principles of India-Africa Engagement’ in Ugandan Parliament on 25 July 2018,” the Indian High Commission in Uganda tweeted on Friday.
However, talking about the matter of security, details pertaining to the contract have not been shared.
In 2011, Uganda was the first African country who buy Su-30 fighter bombers for Russia.
Talking about the history, many claimed that this investment aims to secure Uganda protects its oil resources; in recent times, fighter jets used it to carry out air attacks against ADF rebel camps in the thick DRC forests where ordinarily, it might be difficult for the UPDF to set foot, partially because of terrain.
Meanwhile, these long-range multi-role fighter bombers have done their job in a bid to hit the necessary targets that were outside the range of the other existing jets.
As per the MoU, Uganda Su-30 fighter jets will now give service to the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), India’s state-owned aerospace and defense company,
It was launched in 1940, and its headquarters is in Bengaluru (India); HAL is not only the longest aerospace but also the oldest one and defense manufacturer in the world today.
Relations between Uganda & India:
For many years Uganda and India have been dealing with bilateral relations.
Many times, both the countries cooperate in several sectors, including health, ICT, infrastructure and defense, among others.
Some four years back, in 2018, the Indian Prime Minister visited Uganda in order to cement the ties and became the first Indian leader in addressing the Ugandan parliament.
After the visit of Narendra Modi, President Museveni stated that during the time when we were fighting for colonialism, we worked together, and today we are working together in order to develop the third world and today, I felt very good when I got the chance to work with Indian PM Narendra Modi.
The two leaders highlighted trade, assets and tourism between the two countries, which were previously colonized by Britain.
To further show the relationship between India and Uganda, the Indian government has donated a variety of vehicles and motorcycles to the UPDF.
The vehicles are all belonged to the company of Tata, in which 10 Tata buses, 10 Tata trucks, two ambulances also belong to Tata and some 14 bikes.
