India - Africa: Opportunity to Leverage Relations
STORIES, ANALYSES, EXPERT VIEWS
Africa is flagging its demands nowadays on multilateral fora such as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), the G-20 and the United Nations General Assembly. For a continent with 54 countries, over a quarter of the 'Global South’, it is populated at BRICS and the G-20 by South Africa, an atypical representative of the Black continent.
Lack of international support
The continent is facing innumerable challenges and disruptions ans its problems, according to Mahesh Sachdev (retired Indian Foreign Service officer who served as Ambassador to Algeria and High Commissioner to Nigeria) “are further compounded by an erosion in its international support base. China has been Africa’s largest trading partner and investor, but a slowing economy and trade have reduced its appetite for Africa’s commodities. Its Belt and Roads Initiative has raised the debts of some African countries to unsustainable levels, in turn causing them to cede control of some of their assets to China.
“…..Russia, which is under western economic sanctions, hosted an African summit in July, that saw tepid participation. France, the United Kingdom and other colonial powers as well as the United States have continued to exploit mineral wealth in Africa, but their economic downturn has limited their outreach. Moreover, Europe’s main concern is limited to stopping illegal migration from African shores.
India’s should leverage its historic relations with Africa
Against this worrying backdrop, the 15th BRICS summit took place in South Africa on August 23-24 with the theme ‘BRICS and Africa’. It would be followed up early in September in the 18th G-20 Summit hosted by India where several issues of the ‘global south’ with Africa as a focus would come up.
India’s ties with Africa, writes Sachdev “are deep, diverse and harmonious……Although we now import less oil from Africa and sell fewer agricultural products, India-Africa trade reached $98 billion in 2022-23. India’s investment and other socio-economic engagements with Africa remain robust, especially in such sectors as education, health care, telecom, IT, appropriate technology and agriculture. India was the fifth largest investor in Africa and has extended over $12.37 billion in concessional loans. India has completed 197 projects and has provided 42,000 scholarships since 2015. Approximately three million people of Indian origin live in Africa, many for centuries. They are Africa’s largest non-native ethnicity.
India hosting of the G-20 Summit “will present it with a historic opportunity to up the ante…..It should deliver political stability and economic development by combining peacekeeping with socio-political institution building. We can offer force multipliers such as targeted investments and transfer of relevant and appropriate Indian innovations, such as the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile), DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer), UPI (Unified Payments Interface), and Aspirational Districts Programme. By offering a more participative and less exploitative alternative, New Delhi can make the India-Africa ecosystem an exemplary win-win paradigm for the 21st century.”
