Bilateral relations between two sovereign states are born out of the desire to seek the achievement of specific goals that may be economic, military, political or social in nature for their mutual benefit. Such goals flow from the pursuit of national interests. The COVID-19 pandemic has no doubt brought about manifold disruptions globally but asymeyrically in different countries, which implies that those effects are more gravely felt by some countries than by others. The majority of those who are most negatively impacted are in the Third World which is relatively the poorest on earth. But with globalisation the world itself has become so interwoven that the spillover of crises which result from extreme poverty in that Third World have led to mass migrations which are posing serious challenges for even the industrialised and hitherto extremely prosperous countries. Consequently, bilateral relations in the Covid 19 aftermath should exhibit renewed commitment, cooperation and trust building, as states struggle to stabilize, in particular their teetering economies and strengthen their health care delivery infrastructure. As part of that cooperation African countries should witness the scaling up of technology transfer and economic cooperation from friendly countries that are economically and technologically advanced.

-Maj. Gen. Chris S. Eze (Rtd.), High Commissioner of Nigeria to India

Nigeria is currently India's largest trading partner in Africa. In tandem, Indian companies are the second largest foreign investors in the Nigerian economy, they constitute the second largest employers of labour in Nigeria's private sector after the indigenous DANGOTATE GROUP, and Indian workers comprise the highest number of expatriate workers in Nigeria. The return of PM Narendra Modi is anticipated to reinforce the policy of Africa as India's foreign policy priority and this will invariably translate to deepening relations with African countries at all fronts, and Nigeria in particular being the gateway to Africa. I therefore look forward to more robust engagements between the India and Nigeria Governments, on the one hand and their respective private sectors on the other hand in the next five years of the PM's leadership in India, all geared towards the expansion of relations between the two friendly countries for the mutual benefits of their peoples

-Maj. Gen. (Red.) Chris Sunday Eze, High Commissioner of Nigeria to India

The Indian and Nigerian militaries have maintained excellent, cordial and professional defence relations over the years through various military-to-military engagements, which include training, exchange programmes, high-level visits amongst others. At present, the defence relationship between both countries was concretised with the institution of the India-Nigera Joint Defence Cooperation (JDC) agreement in 2007, which provides a platform upon which the various thematic defence engagement issues are introduced, deliberated upon the implemented for the mutual benefit of both countries. The JDC committee meets annual and the last conference hosted by Nigeria was held from November 20-21, 2017 during which far reaching deliberations were made which would further deepen and project the India-Nigeria defence relations to greater heights.

-Maj. Gen. (Red.) Chris Sunday Eze, High Commissioner of Nigeria to India