Remarks by Ambassador at the MACIC on 26 May 2010 on

“India–Africa Relations”

Your Excellency, Raphael Malonga, the Ambassador of the Republic of Congo

Your Excellency Dr. Ali Din Helal, President of the Egypt-India Friendship Association

Your Excellency, Ambassador Ahmed Haggag, Secretary General, African Society

Friends,

Namaskar, Good Evening and Salamalaikum,

On 15^th April, 1958, in the city of Accra, African leaders and political activists gathered at the first Conference of the Independent African States. The conference was significant in that it represented the first pan-African Conference held on African soil.

Five years later, in Addis Ababa, another historic meeting took place. On 25^th May, 1963, leaders of thirty-two independent African States met to form the Organization of African Unity. At this meeting 25^th May was declared as the Africa Day.

I must compliment the Egypt-India Friendship Association and the Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture for organizing this important panel discussion on India-Africa relations to mark the Africa Day that was celebrated all over the world yesterday.

India-Africa relations have deep roots in history. Linked by the waters of the Indian Ocean, we have been neighbours and partners for thousands of years. There was regular interaction between communities and traders, especially from the West coast of Gujarat and parts of South India with Abyssinia, Somalia, Mombassa, Zanzibar, Mozambique and, of course, Egypt. These long-standing relations were further consolidated in the last century by our common struggle for freedom from colonial rule.

Gandhi became Mahatma, i.e., a great soul, following his experiences in South Africa and by perfecting his tool of Satyagraha and non-violence and active opposition to discrimination and injustice. Mahatma Gandhi had asserted that India’s freedom would be incomplete as long as Africa remained in bondage. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru echoed similar sentiments in subsequent years when supporting the struggle of Africa against colonialism and imperialism, and when calling for the economic emancipation of the peoples of Asia and Africa. India was in the forefront of the struggle against apartheid when it brought the issue to the notice of the United Nations as early as in 1946, even prior to its own independence.

India and Africa are partners in the struggle against poverty, hunger and deprivation. Common experiences of the past have led to shared concerns of both and strengthened our resolve in facing the challenges of the present and the future. Our partnership is anchored in mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit. Working together, the two billion people of India and Africa can set an example of fruitful co-operation in the developing world. India cooperates with all the countries of Africa, within the limits of our capacities and capabilities, to support their efforts towards achieving economic vibrancy, peace, stability and self-reliance.

Countries were colonised in the past because they did not keep pace with the scientific and technological developments in other parts of the world. It is here that India-Africa cooperation attains vital importance. Due focus on knowledge and science and technology will give our nations the rightful positions in the global economic order. Rightly so, Capacity-building and human resource development have been at the core of India’s co-operation with Africa over the past five decades. Even when India was confronted with monumental developmental challenges, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, India had launched the ITEC programme, which is now benefited by over 1600 Africans every year.

Indian private sector investments in Africa, whether in the IT-sector, pharmaceuticals or agricultural projects, have empowered the young men and women of the countries where the projects have been set up by training them, first in India and now at the training facilities in Africa, so that they can work in those projects.

Currently, there are over 15,000 African students in India, many of them on a self-financing basis, and nearly 500 of them coming on scholarships every year, add to the experience of many African countries with Indian teachers and professors.

The Pan-African e-network demonstrates India’s commitment to share our progress in the knowledge-sector and help bridge the digital divide in Africa. Already, more than 30 countries including Egypt have joined this programme. The tele-education and tele-medicine segments of this project link leading universities and hospitals of Africa with their counterparts in India. We have offered to share with our African friends our experience in using remote-sensing and satellite-imagery for weather-forecasting, natural resources management, land use and land-cover mapping and a variety of other applications.

India is now establishing an India-Africa Institute of Information Technology, India-Africa Institute of Foreign Trade, India-Africa Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, India-Africa Diamond Institute in addition to 10 Vocational Training Centres and 5 Human Settlement Institutes in Africa to contribute to capacity building. 

The India-Africa Forum Summit held in New Delhi in April 2008 designed a new architecture for structured engagement, interaction and co-operation between India and Africa in the 21st century. The Delhi Declaration and the Africa-India Framework for Co-operation adopted at the end of the Summit serve as the blueprint for dialogue and engagement, infusing a contemporary character to the age-old relationship by adapting it to the changed, and ever-changing, international environment and to India’s own evolving capabilities and resources. The Summit manifested India’s desire and intention to broaden and deepen her consistent and long-standing engagement with Africa. The outcomes provide a solid foundation for India’s systematic and stepped-up engagement with Africa in the coming years.

At the Summit, our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh announced US$ 5.4 billion in loans for the development of Africa, supported by US$ 500 million in grants for capacity building processes, doubling of scholarships, increasing capacity building positions under our ITEC Programme and a Duty-Free Tariff Preferences Scheme. Many of these are already under successful implementation. Further, in March 2010, we had launched the Joint Action Plan between India and Africa to follow up on the important decisions taken at the Summit in April 2008.

The two-way trade between Africa and India has risen from around $5.5 billion in 2001-‘02 to over $ 45 billion in 2009-‘10, representing an almost eight-fold increase in as many years. We intend to double it in the next five years. Even so, the true potential is much greater, and the spread and composition of the trade have to be diversified substantially. Indian companies have made robust investments in Africa, running into billions of dollars, in sectors ranging from horticulture and agriculture, to power generation and mining. The banking sector has witnessed participation with State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda setting up their branches across the continent. Indian government and private corporate sector have believed in contributing to asset creation in Africa, all along, and this approach has been a catalytic confidence builder for us all in this journey toward long-term sustainable partnership.

India’s engagement with African countries had, in the past, mainly focused on bilateral engagement. In recent years, however, we have taken initiatives for establishing institutional relations with Africa’s regional economic communities. We have made good progress with COMESA, SADC, ECOWAS and EAC, and expect to make similar progress with the others. We have a very firm and shared position in the WTO, in the Doha Development Round, to protect the interests of the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, especially in the agricultural sector.

India and Africa have decided to enhance their co-operation in dealing with transnational challenges and in international institutions such as climate change, health, food-security, energy-security, pandemics, international terrorism, non-proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, combating diseases, eradication of hunger and poverty and promotion of pluralism and democracy as well as reform of the United Nations and other international organizations. The Delhi Declaration outlines the common perceptions of India and Africa on regional and international challenges. India and Africa have resolved at the India-Africa Forum to work together in meeting these challenges.

India has a proud history of participation in UN peace-keeping operations, dating back to the first in Congo in 1960. India has contributed nearly 100,000 troops and participated in more than forty missions over the decades. During the past six decades, India has lost 115 peace-keepers who made the supreme sacrifice by laying down their lives while serving in UN Missions. In 2007, India responded to the call by the UN Secretary-General for increased representation of female personnel in field Missions by providing the first full ‘Female Formed Police Unit’ for peace-keeping work in Liberia. This Unit has been successful in reaching out to women and children, the most vulnerable section of society, in a post-conflict environment, besides performing its normal peace-keeping functions.

The Indian Council of Cultural Relations is organising an African cultural festival later this year, to highlight our age old cultural links.

India has, over the years, shared with Africa its developmental experiences and is committed to continue such cooperation in areas of its strength. India’s model - of development through democracy, use of cost-effective technologies and practical application of the knowledge sector - has been found to be of use to Africa. Africa is today the largest recipient of India’s technical assistance programme. We are extending and diversifying the programme to cater to the special needs of individual countries and groups of nations. Today, both Africa and India face shared challenges; we have agreed to work together in confronting them. The economic strengths of the two regions also came to the fore in the aftermath of the global economic meltdown that was triggered by the financial crisis in the western economies. Countries like India and the African nations hold the key to the global economy recovery.

The emerging global economic scenario and the inherent strengths of India and Africa would make any partnership between the two regions a formidable combine to fashion a new global economic order.

To sum up, I would say India’s engagement with Africa has been rather unique. The Indian Ocean had linked the subcontinent with Africa for centuries. Indian traders, especially from the western coast, engaged in trade with Africa, even during the age of imperialism and colonialism. Habshis of African descent held prominent position in the armies and administration of the Delhi Sultanate in medieval times. Indians had been taken to Africa to work in plantations and in construction of railway lines. Mahatma Gandhi’s contribution to the political awakening of both Africa and India is legendary. Independent India took the lead in the anti-apartheid and anti-colonial struggles of Africa. India extended material, financial and humanitarian support for National Liberation Movements in Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Guinea-Bissau and South Africa. India looks upon Africa as a partner for co-operation for mutual benefit by providing value-addition, generating local employment and contributes to the efforts of the Governments of African countries in reducing regional disparities and developing backward areas.

We look forward to continuing this solid cooperation between India and Africa in the years, decades and centuries to come.

Thank You.

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