India Africa Relations: Tanzanian President’s Historic Visit to India

Context:

• This article is based on the news ”State visit of H.E. Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania to India” which was published in the PIB. 

India Africa Partnership 2023

• India and Tanzania elevated their ties to the level of strategic partnership and both agreed on a five-year roadmap to significantly expand defence engagement.
• Both inked six pacts to boost cooperation in the digital domain, culture, sports, maritime industries and white shipping information sharing.
• Tanzania has decided to join the Global Biofuels Alliance launched by India at the G20 Summit.
• With the inclusion of the African Union(AU) into G2O, there is an increased demand for holding the fourth India-Africa Forum Summit.
  • By hosting the fourth India Africa Forum Summit, India can further enhance its leadership role within the Global South.
• The 20-member Africa Expert Group (AEG), recently presented the Report India Africa Partnership: Achievements, Challenges and Roadmap 2023’. 

India Africa Relations

• Historical relations: India’s fight against decolonisation and apartheid, and consistent efforts to serve as a voice of developing countries through the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). 
  • Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was founded in 1961 with the view to advancing the interests of developing countries in the context of Cold War confrontation.
• Kampala Principles: Outlined in 2018, they serve as a guiding framework for India’s engagement with the continent.
• India Africa Forum Summit: First held in New Delhi in 2008, it marked India’s initial diplomatic efforts to seek a comprehensive partnership with the African bloc of nations as a whole.
• India Africa Trade: As per a paper by the International Monetary Fund, as of 2022, India was the third-largest trading partner for Africa, accounting for 7 per cent of exports ($32.3 billion) and 5 percent of imports ($28 billion).
  • Bilateral trade between India and Africa surged to US$ 98 billion in 2022-23, marking significant growth from the previous year’s US$ 89.6 billion.
  • Africa, through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), is putting in place the appropriate rules of origin to assure their optimization. 
  • This will provide a unified continental market that Indian firms can easily access and tap into—potentially increasing the scope and level of India’s engagement with Africa. 

• Infrastructure: The Asia Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC) was launched by India to enhance cooperation with African countries in partnership with Japan. 
  • With nearly $75 billion of investments by Indian companies, India is among the top five investors in Africa.

• Defense: India Africa Defence Dialogue (IADD) has been institutionalised to be held once every two years to explore new areas of convergence for mutual engagement.
  • It includes capacity building, training, cyber security, maritime security and counter terrorism.
  • Indian army is working as a UN peacekeeper and plays a peace-building role in Africa (DRCongo, Ethiopia-Eritrea border, Sudan and other), building infrastructure and de-mining land.
• Concessional financing: India extended concessional loans exceeding USD 12.37 billion. 
  • This financial assistance has enabled the successful completion of 197 projects, with an additional number of 65 projects currently underway.
• Education: ‘Study in India’ was launched to attract students from neighboring and African countries. 
  • India has granted 42,000 scholarships since the 2015 India Africa Forum Summit (IAFS)-III. 
  • The first foreign campuses of National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) in Uganda and of IIT Mumbai were established in Tanzania.
• Health and medical Tourism between India Africa: India was the third-largest investor in Africa’s healthcare sector from 2010–2019, accounting for a 19 percent share. 
  • Made in India’ COVID-19 vaccines have been exported to 42 African countries from January 2021 to March 2023. 
  • The number of African tourists visiting the country for medical treatment has increased almost threefold in the last decade, from 5.4 percent of the total tourist visits in 2010 to 15.4 percent in 2019.

ALSO READ: INDIA-BRAZIL-SOUTH AFRICA (IBSA)

Why is India Africa Partnership important for India?

• Geographical proximity: Combined with an easily navigable Indian Ocean, it strengthened the ties.
• Geopolitics: It supports India’s bid of gaining a permanent seat in the UNSC.
• Strategic importance: Source of essential raw materials, including minerals, oil, and natural gas.
• Africa is home to 30 percent of the world’s mineral reserves, eight per cent of the world’s natural Gas and 12 per cent of the world’s oil reserves.  
• Agriculture: Africa’s agricultural potential is vast, making it a key player in ensuring food security for the world’s growing population.
• Sustainable development :It’s potential for renewable energy generation is vast, with solar and wind energy resources in abundance. 
• Demographic dividend: It’s large working-age population, its growing middle class, and the significant share of services can add value to trade and investment relationships.
• Economy: It’s a huge market encompassing a $3 trillion economy and 1.3 billion people may contribute to India’s economic growth and export diversification.
• Culture: It is a continent of rich cultural diversity, making it a global centre for intercultural dialogue and understanding.
• Diaspora: Approximately three million people of Indian origin live in Africa which are Africa’s largest non-native ethnicity.
• Global aspirations: Africa’s support at international forums, particularly on issues of mutual concern like climate change, terrorism, and United Nations reforms is pivotal.Ex- BRICS, International Solar Alliance, IBSA Groupings, etc.

What are the challenges facing India Africa relations?

• Untapped potential: Internal trade between India African economies remains much lower in comparison with external partners.
  • Beijing is Africa’s second-largest trading partner after the European Union.
• New frontier for geopolitical rivalries: Both the emerging US and China blocs have increased their engagement with African nations to secure access to resources, markets, and strategic influence. 
• Instability and Governance issues: Africa, in general, and the Sahel region in particular, are passing through several existential challenges such as misgovernance, unplanned development, the dominance of ruling tribes and corruption.
  • Recently, new disruptors such as the Islamic terror, inter-tribal scrimmage, changing climate, runaway food inflation, urbanisation and youth unemployment have further strained the traditional socio-political fabric.
• Role of developed nations:  Military interventions by France, the United States and Russia’s Wagner Group to curb the militancy were initiated to protect their economic interests.
  • Ex- Uranium in Niger, gold in the Central African Republic and oil in Libya. 
• Lack of specific development goals: India’s development cooperation instruments (concessional lines of credit (LoC), grants, and capacity building projects like Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC)) reflect the absence of a plan for Africa. 
  • LoCs, grants and capacity building initiatives operate as standalone instruments of development cooperation, with almost no links with each other. 
  • As a result, the overall development impact of India’s development cooperation is small and difficult to measure.
  • These individual projects barely impact any of the larger development challenges (for instance, food insecurity, health insecurity, poverty) in African countries.
• Poor quality education in India: There have been numerous cases of violence against African students in India and most African students complain of harassment and discrimination.
  • African students objected about the quality of education in India. For instance,  study in India initiative has not been successful in attracting African students to India. 
  • China is currently the second most popular destination for African students after France, which hosts about 95,000 African students. 

What are the way forward for India Africa relations?

• India Africa political and diplomatic cooperation: This should be strengthened by annual strategic dialogue between the chairperson of the AU and India’s External Affairs Minister.
  • There should be a Secretary exclusively in charge of African affairs to further enhance the implementation and impact of the Africa policy.
• India Africa defence and security cooperation: The government needs to expand dialogue on defence issues, widen the footprint of maritime collaboration, and expand lines of credit to facilitate defence exports. 
  • The defence training slots need to be increased and cooperation to be enhanced in counter-terrorism, cyber security and emerging technologies.
• India Africa economic cooperation:  Access to finance through the creation of an Africa Growth Fund (AGF) needs to be ensured. 
  • Special measures to improve project exports and building cooperation in the shipping domain are needed.
• India Africa development cooperation: A special focus on promoting trilateral cooperation and deepening science and technology cooperation could pay rich dividends.
  • For example: Triangular cooperation of India-UN Development Partnership Fund and the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Fund with India.
• Reaping low hanging benefits: Strengthening of the pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity in Africa. 
  • India is an important source of Africa’s pharmaceutical imports, but the pandemic revealed the adverse effects of international supply chains disruptions.
• India Africa socio-cultural cooperation:  Greater interaction between universities, think tanks, civil society and media organisations in India and select African countries is needed.
  • Setting up a National Centre for African Studies will be the right step. 
  • ITEC and Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) scholarships awarded to Africans should be named after famous African figures. 
  • Visa measures for African students who come to India for higher education should be liberalised. They should also be given work visas for short periods.
• Addressing malnutrition and Food security: With Africa’s inclusion in G20, the challenges posed by rapid population growth, persistent poverty, and widespread undernourishment become more serious. 
  • These regions together account for 67.0 per cent and 75.8 per cent of the world’s children under five afflicted with the malnutrition problems of stunting and wasting
  • Initiating a comparative analysis between India and Africa could foster South-South learning and collaboration in the pursuit of sustainable agriculture and food systems.

Conclusion

Strengthening India Africa relations through closer collaboration in politics, economics, and culture can help both regions overcome challenges and achieve shared development, security, and prosperity.

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