India -Africa

Compiled by-Pratik
Nayak
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India-Africa

Indias relation with the African continent goes back to many

centuries
There was flourishing trade between East Africa and the
West Coast of India across the Arabian Sea
Indian sailors helped the Portuguese explorer Vasco de
Gama navigate the treacherous waters of the Arabian Sea
Colonisation of India and Africa led to a decline and
eventually the end of the flourishing trade

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India-Africa
During the colonial period an Indian Diaspora came to being
in Africa working as indentured labour in the plantations and
railroad construction in Southern and East Africa
India became independent, the government headed by the
first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru pursued a policy of
supporting African national struggles against colonialism
and against apartheid in South Africa
Nehru also played a leading role in convening the first AsianAfrican Conference, which brought together representatives
of African and Asian countries in the Indonesian city of
Bandung in 1955, giving rise to the Non-Aligned Movement
(NAM)
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India-Africa
Africa is emerging as a new growth
pole of the world and that Indias
partnership with the continent
based on the three pillars
ofcapacity-building,
skilltransfer
,tradeandinfrastructuredevelop
mentwas a living embodiment of
South-South cooperation.

In spite of historical ties and ideological affinity, the African

continent was relatively marginal in Indias foreign policy
and diplomacy until 1990s.
Early post-Independence period, Indias foreign policy was
mainly focused on the South Asian region, despite the
assertion of AfroAsian solidarity
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India-Africa
Indias Africa policy
Indias Africa policy is stated in general terms and does not
appear to differ much from policies towards most other
states
Indias contemporary Africa policy is based on the aim to
promote justice in the global order, and to increasing the
leverage of their respective global positions in the
international
Indian model order
of engagement with the continent that
revolves around capacity building, training and private
sector investments
Indias FP is ultimately guided by its domestic concerns
India has also become increasingly conscious of its growing
need to secure supplies of food and energy, exploit new
export markets and attract foreign capital and technological
know-how
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India-Africa
Importance of Africa to India in todays context
Strategic Energy Security
Indias priority to diversification of its foreign oil supplies
and Africas position as the last oil frontier
India has discovered that Africa is where the resources and
future markets that will fuel its economic growth
@ Economic front, the mineral resources of Africa and the
huge market stand out as the most important factors
African energy resources and materials like iron ore, copper,
manganese, bauxite, etc will be vital for Indias continued
growth.
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India-Africa
Importance of Africa to India in todays context
Africa has emerged as an important market for Indian
goods and services
Africa is viewed as an underdeveloped market for lowtechnology and low- cost manufactured goods and services

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India-Africa
Importance of Africa to India in todays context
Evolving demography of Africa
Continent of nearly a billion people is steadily building up a
substantial middle class- Demand
By 2040 there will be more than one billion Africans in the
working age
That would be the time when most countries in other
continents will have a shortage of labour force
With adequate growth in infrastructure, Africa has the
potential to become a major manufacturing hub supplying to
the rest of the world
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IndiaAfrica
Importance of Africa to India in todays context
Indian Diaspora in the Continent
Estimated that there are over 2 million persons of Indian
origin in the continent
Like to leverage them to promote India-Africa engagement.
An ideal platform for deepening people-to-people, cultural
and social ties

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IndiaAfrica
Importance of Africa to India in todays context
Agriculture
Potential in the agricultural sector has to be particularly
mentioned;
60% of the worlds uncultivated, arable land is in SubSaharan Africa
Can become the breadbasket of the world in a decade
But for this to happen, sustainability in agriculture has to be
practiced

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India-Africa
Importance of Africa to India in todays context
Politically, the continent is home to 54 sovereign nations
Todays world where more and more issues are decided in
multi-lateral fora, this group of countries belonging to the
African Union (AU) becomes a powerful factor.
India has similar problems and views on many global issues
as the African countries.

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India-Africa
Importance of Africa to India in todays context
Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea are a part of Indias strategic
maritime Neighbourhood- Our sphere of influence

These are also important sea-lanes of communication (SLOCs)

Existence of extremist organisations and criminal
syndicates that traffic drugs, arms and people, as well as
pirates,
As a result, India has expanded its military presence in the
Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean

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India-Africa

India Africa convergence & our approach to

development cooperation
India has always rejected the donor-recipient model
No
conditionalities
No policy
prescriptions

Indian Principles

No questioning of the
sovereignty of the
partners
Projects are never thrust upon the countries
India leveraged its own strength and niche area of expertise
to help African countries in their developmental efforts
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India-Africa
India Africa convergence & our approach to
development cooperation
India leveraged its own strength and niche area of expertise
to help African countries in their developmental efforts
Particularly in the sectors of capacity building , human
resource development and Technological help
India used her own development experiences and shared
them with the Africans
objective of such cooperation would be to create a higher
level of capacities enabling the relationship to be
expanded and upgraded in subsequent stages. Instead of
prolonged dependency, the objective would be to create
mutually beneficial interdependency
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India-Africa
Convergence Between India and Africa
Resurgence, Renewal and Renaissance.
Democracy, Development, and Demographic Dividend
Trade, Technology and Training
54 countries is over ten times the size of India but has
roughly the same population -- just over one billion people

In India more than fifty percent of the population is below

the age of twenty five and in most African states, half or
more of the population is under twenty five years of age

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India-Africa
Convergence Between India and Africa
Both are marked by geo-economic diversity
Coastal India is more developed than the landlocked regions,
coastal Africa is more developed than inland Africa, except
where nature has blessed it with oil and other valuable
commodities
Africa has decisively shed the stereotype of aHopeless
Continentand become aCape of Good Hope,
Six of the worlds fastest-growing economies located in in
Sub-Saharan Africa and more than thirty African countries
becoming functioning democracies
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India-Africa
Convergence Between India and Africa
Trade
2000 onwards there has been a quantum jump in IndiaAfrica economic relations
Trade volume of US $ 967 million in 1990-91 rose to US $ 46
billion by 2010 and USD 71 billion in 2015
Could reach US $160 billion in the next three years
Indian investments in Africa at present are about US $50
billion
Indian private sector is making considerable investments
inagriculture, telecom and automobiles,among others

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India-Africa
Convergence Between India and Africa
Trade
India alsoengages with various groupings in Africa for Trade
agreements
Southern African Customs
Union (SACU),
Tripartite free trade
Economic Community of
agreement (TFTA)
West African States
(ECOWAS)
Common Market for
Eastern and Southern
Africa (COMESA)

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India-Africa
Indias approach to development cooperation

Flagship mechanism for cooperation was the Indian Technical

and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programmes started in 1964
Capacity building through training
scholarships
Components
Projects under Lines of Credit
of ITEC
(LOCs)
Disaster relief and emergency aid

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India-Africa
Indias approach to development cooperation
India has extended over USD 1 billion worth of assistance
through ITEC
Over 1000 Africans are trained annually
Indias expertise in the field of Information and
Communications Technology has helped establish the panAfrican e-Network, which was launched in 2009 for
telemedicine, tele-education

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India-Africa
Indian-African Security Cooperation
At the policy level, there is a principled understanding over a
number of issues
Both India and many African countries continue to push for
the expansion of the UN Security Council membership to
increase participation of developing countries.
Area of peacekeeping operations has also witnessed great
Indian-African cooperation
India is currently the 3rd largest contributing country in UN
peacekeeping missions in Africa, after Bangladesh and
Pakistan, with 8,112 uniformed personnel
The areas of cooperation in the R&D and manufacturing of
defence systems are numerous
Indias policy priority, which motivates cooperation with
countries in the Indian Ocean Region, it is important to look
at the two issues of maritime security and terrorism
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India-Africa
Indian-African Security Cooperation
1.Maritime security
Critical issue for India, considering the size of Indian energy
imports from Africa and the need to secure its shipping
routes
Counter-piracy operations in East Africa were in coordination
with African countries along the Indian Ocean
India already has military cooperation agreements with
Kenya, Seychelles, Mozambique, and Madagascar
India is also actively seeking a long-term lease on a group of
small islands belonging to Mauritius, so that it can establish
a base to protect its energy imports from Africa.
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India-Africa
Indian-African Security Cooperation
2.Terrorism
Nature of the terrorist threat affecting India as well as many
African countries is same
Al-Qaeda in Yemen, works & do cooperation with the AlShabab terrorist group But
in Somalia,
now on due to rise
ISISbetween honouring its affiliation
Al-Shabab leadership isoftorn
with Al-Qaeda or giving in to the lure of the rising ISIS
Radicalization as a common enemy, India and the African
countries must cooperate on many aspects
At the hard security level, counter-terrorism training and
intelligence sharing mechanisms have been developed at
bilateral
and multilateral
levels
Indian experience
in conflict
resolution and in countering
terrorism, India must contribute to the shaping of terrorism
& extremism
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India-Africa
Summit diplomacy
Started with, Establishment of the India-Africa Forum
Summits
Structured on the model suggested by AU in the Banjul
Consensus in 2006
First Summit was held in New Delhi in April 2008
only a select group of African leaders were invited
Second India-Africa Forum Summit was held in Addis
Ababa (Ethiopia) in May 2011 with the theme Enhancing
Partnership: Shared Vision
Third India-Africa Forum Summit was held in New
Delhi(India) in Oct 2015 Theme:Partners in Progress:
Towards a Dynamic and Transformative Development
Agenda
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India-Africa
Summit diplomacy
First Summit New Delhi,2008: Important Outcomes
Duty free imports from 34 African Least Developed
Countries (LDCs)
Additional LOCs amounting to $5.4 billion for the
period 2008-2013
Number of ITEC slots was increased from 1000 to 1600
every year
Doubled the number of long-term scholarships for graduate
and postgraduate studies

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India-Africa
Summit diplomacy

ond Summit Adis Ababa,2011: Important Outcomes

Another $ 5 billion in LOCs

$ 700 million for new institutions and training programmes
$300 million for the Ethiopian-Djibouti railway link
Establishment of clusters in areas of food processing,
textiles, weather forecasting, agriculture and rural
development
Commitment of 22,000 scholarships for the next three
years

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India-Africa

Summit diplomacy
Third India-Africa Forum Summit
Indias vision and desire to assist Africa with infrastructure
building from Cairo to Cape Town, Marrakesh to
Mombassa
Credit at concessional rates of $10 billion over 5 years
50,000 scholarships will be given to African students
Total grant assistance of $600 million including an IndiaAfrica Development Fund of $100 million & India-Africa
Health Fund of $10 million
Summit will now be held every five years instead of three
years interval
Emphasis on the blue economy
Joint document was issued which calls for zero tolerance
against terrorism
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India-Africa
Summit diplomacy
Third India-Africa Forum Summit
India and Africa share adeep bond of
friendship, forged by history,
common challenges, and ashared
journey on the path of progress

It provides an opportunity to not only reflect on the past, but

to define the road ahead in tune with the times we live in.
How?
Engaging Africa India and Africa are united by their common
goals of 3P, peace , progress and
2/3rd of India andprosperity
2/3rd of Africa is under the age of 35
years
Partnershipbetween India and Africa rests on the pillars of
economic growth, development and empowerment and is a
consolidation of engagement at various levels bilateral,
regional and pan African
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India-Africa
Summit diplomacy
Third India-Africa Forum Summit
India invited African nationstojoinanallianceofsolar-rich
countries thatIndia has proposestolaunchinParis
Top agenda of the summit was to gain support to win India a
place in the UN Security Council
These institutions cannot be
representative of our world, if they
do not give voice to Africa, with
more than a quarter of UN
members, or the worlds largest
democracy with one-sixth of
humanity
Access to affordable and quality treatment and medicines,
particularly generic medicines to people of both sides
All this was iterated in Delhi Declaration-2015

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IndiaAfrica
Way ahead
First improvement -City-to-city connectivity between India
and Africa as it is virtually non-existent
Absence of a greater interaction between the constituents of
a new aspirational Africa and their counterparts in a rising
India has meant that the trans-continental relationship has
been largely defined by the legacy of a shared colonial past
rather than by the potential for a dynamic present and a
promising
futuretrade over the decade, But lags behind
Rise in bilateral
Chinas trade in Africa ($200 billion)
Africa has benefitted from Indian cooperation in ICT,
healthcare, agribusiness, online education
Need to engage with Africa is important because of large
Indian Diaspora there

India-Africa
Way ahead

Make in India, India could be the next big consumer of the

strategic minerals and commodities
Indias small and medium enterprises has high potential to
enhance bilateral trade
Qualified young Indian teachers to Africas underserved
areas to raise skill levels of Africans will help us gain
grassroots level goodwill
By marrying African
resources and Indian
expertise, as former Ghana
president John Kufuor has said
famously, anything is
possible.
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Thank
You

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