The Hindu : India rediscovers Africa

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 27, 2002

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India rediscovers Africa

By C. Raja Mohan

NEW DELHI JUNE 26. "Africans are our neighbours,'' the External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh, declared a few days ago when he inaugurated the Africa Centre at the Indian Council of World Affairs here. With that simple proposition, Mr. Singh initiated a fresh thinking on Africa, a continent that has been woefully neglected by India in recent years.

New Delhi's renewed interest in Africa has not come a day too soon. It also comes amid a significant initiative from the African leaders and the international community to kick-start economic growth in the continent. The plans to promote economic recovery and political stability in Africa are all set to be unveiled this week at the summit of the Group of Eight advanced nations in Canada.Why is seeing Africa as part of our neighbourhood such a big deal? Isn't that obvious?

Physically, Africa forms the western fringe of the Indian Ocean, which had connected it to the subcontinent through maritime trade routes down the ages. But post-independent India slowly drifted towards viewing Africa through the lone prism of third world solidarity and non-alignment.

Africa was not seen as a neighbour but as a rhetorical item on India's exalted global agenda. And Africans became fellow travellers in the struggle against imperialism, neo-colonialism and racial discrimination.

In redefining Africa as a "neighbour,'' Mr. Singh is emphasising economic intimacy and in seeing it as an important part of the Indian Ocean community, he is giving Africa greater weight in India's regional strategic calculus.

India has also begun to recognise its responsibility to contribute to African security not just through the United Nations peace-keeping operations, but in joining the international efforts to end the many civil wars that have wreaked havoc in the continent.

Until recently, fighting the West was the central theme of India's Africa policy. Now, in the transformed regional and international context, New Delhi has to work with the West in bringing peace and prosperity to Africa.

During the last decade, India tried to reach out to many of its neighbouring regions that had become politically distant during the Cold War. India's insular economic policies too helped snap historic trade relations with many of its neighbours.

India's rediscovery of its neighbourhood included South East Asia and the Persian Gulf. The former was the object of the much-analysed "look east'' policy, and the Gulf became central to India's energy diplomacy.

As the republics of Central Asia returned to the international system from within the womb of the Soviet Union, India devoted considerable energies to establish links with these nations. Indian activism in these regions fitted with the new idea of an "extended neighbourhood'' that became the focus of New Delhi's diplomatic energies. In other words, India's extended neighbourhood is nothing but the Indian Ocean and its littoral.

The missing link in this regional strategy, articulated by India in the 1990s, was Africa. Although South Africa became the object of special Indian attention once apartheid ended there, the idea of Africa as a whole tended to fall off the Indian radar screen.

Mr. Singh's visit to a few African countries last month was postponed. Having identified Africa as an important part of India's neighbourhood, Mr. Singh should reschedule the visit at the earliest.

As India prepares to re-engage Africa, the G-8 meeting in Canada will endorse the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). This ambitious plan, agreed to earlier this month by African leaders, hopes to bring $ 64 billion into the continent through trade, aid and foreign investment.

A major thrust of NEPAD is on specific economic projects such as bringing in new farming techniques and better management of the water resources. At the same time, the international community will also try and promote good governance, free elections, rule of law and financial accountability across the continent.

India is well positioned to contribute to both these tasks. India has begun to think creatively about Africa. It also acted boldly in deciding last week to invest a large sum of money — $ 750 million — in an oil project in Sudan. What New Delhi needs to do is to convert its "Focus Africa'' initiative into a sustainable action plan that works with the international community in Africa.

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