Dr. Arvind Kumar*
Safari is a Swahili word· meaning ‘Journey’ which has become· synonymous with Big Game viewing in both Africa and India. It is probably for this reason· that the perception· is that both continents conduct· safaris and wildlife conservation· in the same way. Nevertheless here the world Safari is used to denote growing geopolitical and geo-economic relations between India and Africa and their significance for international peace and stability along with prospects of their mutual cooperation in securing the world from the vagaries of climate change and pave way for the speedy realization of the Agenda 2030.
India’s relations with the countries of Africa date back to the early 1920s; when both regions were engaged in the struggle against colonial rule and oppression. The leadership of the Indian freedom struggle identified India’s freedom struggleas part of the worldwide struggle against imperialism, and after attaining its freedom from the British colonial rule in 1947, India emerged as a leading voice in support of African decolonisation at the United Nations and other international forums of that period.
The emergence of India as an independent country in the latter part of the 1940s proved instrumental in spurring the liberation of many countries in Africa and Latin America from the colonial yoke in the 1950s and the 1960s. In the post-independent period, India, though endowed with limited resources, strived hard to foster economic relations with African countries under the aegis of South-South Cooperation, and in 1964, India launched the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme to make available technical assistance through human resource developmentto other developing countries, and the African countries were the greatest beneficiaries of this programme as well as that of the Special Commonwealth African Assistance Programme (SCAAP).
Throughout the 1960s and the 1970s, India worked closely with the newly-independent countries of Africa to forge a common perspective on global issues. India had been active in Africa’s Anglophone countries and East Africa for many decades, and the presence of India’s large diaspora in countries like Kenya, Tanzania, and Mauritius also proved instrumental in fostering closer economic relations between India and Africa. Undoubtedly, the geopolitical and geo-economic developments that obtained at the global, regional, and national levels in the aftermath of the unveiling of the erstwhile Soviet Union, the demise of the Cold War, and globalisation gaining increasing international traction, many changes in India’s foreign policy and economic diplomacy had started taking place, with emphasis on mending relations with the West and integrating Indian economy with that of the global economy, and in the flurry of these hectic activities, Africa was moved to the margins of India’s foreign policy priorities. Nevertheless, recent decades have witnessed Africa being accorded priority in India’s foreign relations.
Geopolitical Dimensions
The growing strategic importance of energy in India’s onward march toward the trajectory of economic growth, and the quest for new energy resources abroad in view of limited domestic resources to meet growing energy demand, especially at the cusp of the inauguration of the twenty-first century, India was forced to rethink its neglect of Africa. Apart from energy, there were factors also that spurred India’s renewed interest in Africa. 54 countries of Africa are members of the UN and their support in the UN General Assembly is indispensable for India to seek permanent membership of the UN Security Council. Besides, African cooperation is essential for realizing its strategic ambitions, especially in the Indian Ocean where India is keen to project its naval power across the Indian Ocean from Africa’s East Coast to the western shores of Australia. In pursuit of these objectives, India has stepped up its naval cooperation with littoral states of Africa in the Indian Ocean, especially with littorals like Seychelles, Mauritius, and Madagascar. Tackling the mounting menace of sea piracy off Somalia’s coast also calls for close naval cooperation between India and Africa. This year the African country of Senegal is co-organising the ‘The 9thWorld Water Forum’with the World Water Council (WWC) which co-organizes the Forum every three years. The Council has been co-organising the Forum in partnership with a host country since 1997 and is known as the ‘Mecca for water community’ and is the world’s largest event on the water. The 9th World Water Forum is being organised on the theme of ‘Water for peace and development’ and Dakar, the capital of Senegal is hosting the 9th World Water Forum from 21-26 March 2022. The Forum was postponed by a year due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. The World Water Council and Government of Senegal’s intent for this year’s Forum are to organize a Forum that is a catalyst for action to accelerate universal access to water and sanitation, a Forum that is connected and linked to global agendas and commitments relating to SDGs.
Geo-Economic Contours
Contours of economic cooperation between Africa and India are expanding with the passage of time and each entails the potential of being an asset for the other in one way or another. In view of the fact that India is heavily dependent on the import of crude oil and gas from abroad, especially from the Middle East to meet its energy requirements, and in view of instability haunting the Middle East frequently, Arica has emerged as an attractive option for India to import crude oil in recent decades. Apart from crude oil, Africa is also rich in gold, diamonds, platinum, copper, manganese, and uranium. India owns the world’s largest diamond-cutting industry and depends on rough diamonds from Arica. And the presence of uranium in Niger, Uganda, and Tanzania is significant for India’s nuclear power industry. Availability of crude oil and strategic minerals in West Africa and South Africa can be said to be key drivers of India’s close engagement with these regions. The immense oil wealth of Nigeria has made that country emerge as India’s top trading partner in Africa, accounting for nearly 30% of India’s
trade with that continent.
Admittedly, India’s economic engagement with Arica started getting intensified only in the early 2000s; nevertheless, recent years have witnessed phenomenal growth in bilateral trade. India’s total trade with Africa that stood at $ 6.8 billion in 2003 catapulted to $ 76.9 billion in 2018, and India is now Africa’s third-largest trade partner. Indian investments in Africa have also seen rapid growth in the past decade, and currently, India is the seventh-largest investor in Africa. Rapid growth has been recorded by the scale of India’s development cooperation with Africa, and this development cooperation commenced with India using the concessional line of credit (LoC) as one of its primary development partnership instruments to fund infrastructure development from 2003 onwards. This infrastructure development comprises the construction of railway lines, electrification and irrigation projects, farm mechanisation projects, etc.
According to experts, the LoCs are demand-driven and extended on the principle of mutual benefit – recipient countries make development gains, while the LoCs help generate new markets for Indian companies, promote export growth, build good relations with countries that are significant sources of food, energy, and resources, and contribute to the country’s image abroad. According to broad estimates, India has sanctioned above 180 LoC projects in Africa through the Export-Import (Exim) Bank of India, with a total credit commitment of about $ 10.5 billion. Many experts draw attention to the considerable development impact on Africa wielded by India’s LoC projects. India’s irrigation project in Senegal led to a six-fold increase in rice production, and in Ethiopia, India’s LoC project helped that country become self-sufficient in sugar production. Africa is also a big market for India’s pharmaceutical industry and it is said to have played an important role in controlling the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases. In the aftermath of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, India reportedly supplied more than 25 million doses of domestically made shots to 41 African countries, mostly through the global vaccine-distribution network COVAX.
There have been media reports drawing attention to India’s investments in African land attracting criticism. Some Indian companies investing in African land are accused of engaging in a “land grab”, specifically in Ethiopia where Indian companies, such as Karturi Global, have leased vast tracts of land to grow cash crops, and critics opine that such a step could undermine Africa’s food security. In this regard, some experts caution that there ought to be constant monitoring of such projects to avert any adverse effects on local food security. Besides, it also devolves on the Government of India to ensure that Indian companies do not indulge in undue practices that could tarnish the country’s image abroad.
Way Forward
India’s blossoming friendly ties with Africa in multiple fields are not a ‘one-way street’, with benefits flowing to one side only, rather it is a two-way street wherein both India and Africa are mutually benefited. India has been sharing its development experience with Africa in multiple fields, and in recent years, India has been helping Africa attain the trajectory of growth by building its service sector on the same lines that India has built its service sector that proved instrumental in spurring Indian economy. India is also supporting institutional capacity building at the pan-African, regional and bilateral levels. India is helping in establishing scores of institutions in Africa in areas as diverse as food-processing, agriculture, textiles, weather forecasting, and rural development.
Experts often draw parallels between India’s Arica Safari and China’s African Safari. Trade of India and China with Africa has reportedly grown at similar rates – India at a compounded annual growth rate of 24.8% and that of China at 26.3%, and it is the access to African natural resources, especially crude oil that is the main driver of engagement of China and India in Africa. However, there are divergences in strategies to be adhered to either by China or India in their respective engagements with Africa. India’s footprint in Africa is small when compared to China, and concurrently, India is a late entrant too. In 2011, India accounted for 5.2% of Africa’s global trade compared with China’s 16.9%. Moreover, China’s investment in Africa is handled by state-owned companies, whereas Indian investment is mainly piloted by the private sector. Another difference is that Indian companies hire local labourers while most of the Chinese companies import Chinese labourers to their projects in Africa. According to some analysts, India has not been able to match China’s aid-for-oil strategy; nonetheless, policy-makers in New Delhi are sized of this lacuna and will soon be able to overwhelm the Chinese strategy.
Undoubtedly, Beijing has been able to establish a significant economic presence in most African countries via its lucrative economic package, flexible political approach and focused big-ticket projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) under the garb of providing an ostensibly massive opportunity to African countries. Nonetheless, the unilateral nature of the BRI, the want of transparency and accountability to African countries, and the absence of projects that directly benefit the local African people have largely raised apprehensions and fuelled local resentment. Reports in the international media make it discernible that there are growing instances of African countries either cancelling or postponing BRI projects over rising debt concerns.
This scenario affords ample opportunities for India to devise its economic strategies by learning from blunders committed by China and winning the hearts and minds of the people of Africa. India should remain upbeat over its relations with Africa. India’s corporate sector willing to invest in Africa should be legally bound and accountable to promote the development of the indigenous population and profit at the expense of national prestige should not be the motto. India’s commitment to capacity building in Africa, its people-centric approach and efforts to build a sustainable partnership hold the key to envisaging enduring partnership with Africa and garneringthe latter’s support for its geopolitical and geo-economic benefits.
Editor, Focus Global Reporter
