•PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu (left) and First Lady Esther welcome Indian President Ram Nath Kovind and his spouse Savita at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka yesterday.
Picture by Eddie Mwanaleza/State House

By CHUSA SICHONE –
INDIAN President Ram Nath Kovind has arrived for a State visit to Zambia at the invitation of President Edgar Lungu with the two expected to hold bilateral talks to cement relations.
This is the first time in 30 years that an Indian president is visiting Zambia.
The plane carrying Mr Kovind and the Indian First Lady Savita, senior Government officials and a business delegation arrived at the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka yesterday afternoon.
President Lungu, First Lady Esther Foreign Affairs Minister Joseph Malanji, Zambian High Commissioner to India Judith Kapijimpanga, Service Chiefs, Cabinet Ministers, senior Government and, Patriotic
Front officials led party Secretary General Davies Mwila received the visiting delegation.
Mr Kovind was accorded a 21-gun salute before inspecting a guard of honour and later proceeded to greet the Zambian officials as well as a jubilant and flag-wielding group of Indian nationals resident in
Zambia who had paraded to welcome the Indian First Family.
A cultural dance troupe and PF choir were also on hand to entertain the visiting delegation which will be in Zambia until tomorrow.
Mr Kovind’s visit is expected to culminate in the signing of a number of agreements between the two countries, notable among them being an agricultural mechanisation project worth US$40 million.
Mr Kovind and President Lungu are also scheduled to participate in a groundbreaking ceremony for a project to help cure Lusaka’s heavy road congestion to be implemented with support from the Indian government.
The Indian leader is in Zambia for a three-day state visit.