Rosel Youssef, P.8 (24-2-2008)
What is the reason behind holding an Indian-African Summit?
By: Ahmed Hagag (Secretary General of the African Association)
Summit meetings have emerged as a key feature of the world since several decades. Even the meetings between the Presidents of any two countries are described as "summit meetings" in order to give the impression that they are very important and would come up with serious results. In fact, these meetings are held only between the two Presidents without the participation of any other officials from the two countries or experts or even translators. Summits are held today in form of conferences with the participation of several Presidents and Heads of state. There are summits, which are held on annual basis or every six months, for the Kings and Presidents of the member states of several organizations, such as the League of Arab States, Organization of African Unity, EU, NATO, NAM and Latin America…etc.
At the end of these summits, lengthy communiqués, based on the discussions held among those Presidents and Kings, are issued. However, the recommendations included in these communiqués are rarely followed up, because some of them are illogical and do not put into consideration the commitments of the other countries to these recommendations. Nevertheless, these recommendations steal media limelight before and after the event. Several points related to these recommendations are usually discussed during the Foreign Ministers' meetings, which precede the summits. Today, peoples question the importance of such summits. However, summit meetings sometimes help in breaking the ice between two certain countries, thus helping their governments to cooperate with each other.
In the last few decades, new type of summits emerged, which are held between the leaders of one of the major countries and Presidents of a group of countries. France took the initiative in this domain through holding the French-African summit, which is regularly held every two years. Then, other summits of the same type were held, such as the Francophone Summit, China-Africa Summit (several summits between China and Africa were held in the last 10 years in Beijing), Commonwealth Summit, the American-Sub-Saharan Summit, EU-Africa Summit, EU-Asia Summit, EU-Latin America Summit, Latin America-Arab League Summit and Latin American-Africa Summit.
Now, India is
following the same approach, as it extended the invitation to a limited number
of African countries, including Egypt, to attend a summit, which is to be
organized in New Delhi in the first week of next April.
The question is:
what is the reason that promoted India to do so? Is it the competition between
India and China to get more investments in African countries, especially in the
field of oil to meet the increasing power needs of their growing economies?
India has had deeply-rooted and ancient relations with the African continent.
Furthermore, India was on top of the world countries, which supported liberation
movements in Africa. Moreover, there are huge Indian communities in a large
number of African countries.
The African
countries look upon the Indian experience in the fields of democracy, economic
progress and elimination of poverty as a model, which should be followed. Also,
India has become food exporter, after it was a net importer. In addition, India
possesses an atomic bomb, which was made by
its indigenous scientists and thus joined the nuclear club. On the other hand,
India has achieved major leaps in the field of IT sector, to which the African
countries attach great importance.
The Indian External Affairs Minister visited Addis Ababa during the last African Summit in order to extend official invitations to a selective number of African Heads of state to participate in the summit, which will be held in New Delhi. India has preferred to select certain African countries and not all of them so that it would be easy to interact with them and take practical steps to push forward African-Indian cooperation. India focused on 14 African countries, with which it enjoys distinguished relations. The expected summit will include untraditional sessions, namely, there will be no stereotype official speeches. India seeks to focus on cooperation with Africa countries in certain fields, such as environment, healthcare, education, power and mining. Although India was not one of the countries, which provide tangible economic assistances to the African countries, it has provided some assistance in the fields of small and medium scale industries, offered thousands of scholarships for African students and joined hands with some African countries to produce cheap ADIS drugs instead of the very expensive medicines produced by multinational pharmaceutical companies.
India offered loans of US$ 1 billion to some African countries. Also, India's oil imports from African countries have remarkably increased in the last few years. India has close cooperation with a number of African countries in East of Africa, as India is very keen to keep the region overlooking the Indian Ocean safe from any terrorist attacks, which could affect the vital routes of navigation. Thus, India has military relations with some African countries. Also, India offers peace-keeping training courses for troops of some African countries. Moreover, India contributes with a large number of soldiers to the UN peace-keeping operations in a number of African countries, like Congo, Ethiopia and Sudan.
Some major countries, like the US and the UK, have tried to cooperate with India in some African countries in view of India's good reputation in the continent. However, the Indians refused to cooperate with such countries of colonial legacy and preferred to cooperate with countries like Brazil. Also, the Indians do not want to engage in a public competition with China in Africa given the western criticism for China's policy in this region. So, they do not want to be criticized in the same way. Indian investments in Africa are not restricted to public sector, as several private companies possess ventures in many African countries, including non-English speaking countries.
The Indian Prime Minister paid two visits last year to Africa, where he announced that fresh Indian investments in the field of power would be pumped to Africa. The Indian products hold huge appeal in Africa. Besides, Indian art troupes are visiting African countries from now and then to perform their shows. In this context, we should highlight the fact that the Indian films are very famous in Africa and the books printed in India are outselling in the African countries.
Several months ago, an important conference for the Ministers of Power in India and Africa was held in India to coordinate their international stances with regard to the issue of power and energy. When I was working in the Organization of African Unity (OAU), I attended several conferences in India, which focused on African studies. I discovered that there are departments for African studies in dozens of Indian universities, which follow up all political, economic and cultural developments in Africa. The Indian government attaches great importance to the celebration of Africa Day, which is annually held on the 25th of May with the participation of all African embassies in New Delhi.
We expect that the Indo-African Summit, which is scheduled to be held in New Delhi next April, would give a momentum to current and future relations between the two sides. I believe that the African countries should benefit from the massive potentials of the Indian economy. Given the high growth rate India has been achieving over the past decade, the Indian economy has become one of most important economies in the world.
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