Somewhere India lost the plot with the African Union: Ambassador Gurjit Singh
Indian envoy to the African Union (AU) and a key thinker who conceptualised the India-Africa Forum Summit series of meetings has said that India’s plans
Indian envoy to the African Union (AU) and a key thinker who conceptualised the India-Africa Forum Summit series of meetings has said that India’s plans regarding the AU did not go as planned and that New Delhi “lost the plot” with the AU. In a conversation with The Hindu, Mr. Singh explained that over the past decade, India has prioritised bilateral government-level exchanges in Africa which undermined the ties with the powerful African Union. His remarks came days after the fourth India-Africa Forum Summit, scheduled for May 31, was cancelled due to Ebola outbreaks across Africa. The same disease forced a year-long delay to the third summit in 2014, which finally took place in 2015 and was attended by all 54 African Nations, including 41 heads of state. Ambassador Singh added that post-2015, India focused more on bilateral engagement with African states and therefore, “India lost the plot with the African union.” While the Ambassador agreed that bilateral relations have been robust, he argued that by focusing primarily on bilateral engagement, India did not engage with regional economic communities and the AU, which were part of the three-tier structure built during the first two summits.
While the summit was moved to a five-year frequency post-2015 in principle, it never materialised. The Central Government attributed the summit’s absence to COVID. However, as per Mr. Singh, the problem was not limited to, “not the missing summit,” but the pulling of the plug on interregnum engagements with AU, “India used to hold health, education, business, and energy summits at the ministerial level. Somehow, we stopped doing them. Those arrangements were functional and valuable and should have continued.” Even though India has, in the recent past, enhanced its cooperation with the AU by shepherding the AU into the G20 as a permanent member during India’s presidency in 2023, “but by then, the AU’s calendar had filled up with new suitors,” Ambassador Singh adds. “China does more, but India does better” Among the rising powers, apart from India, China has made major inroads into Africa. By 2023, the East Asian giant was the largest trade partner of 52 out of 54 African states. However, Ambassador Singh cautioned from measuring the success of India’s Africa policy vis-a-vis China.
“I don’t look at this as India versus China. Never, on a single day that I ran Africa policy, did I ask what China was doing that we must do. My approach was always: what are we good for, what can we offer, let’s do that.” He further added that the Chinese model is extractive, wherein they have often pressured African governments to get their way. He mentions, “For instance, the Chinese have built railways in Africa, but there are no English manuals to train the locals. In Chinese-led projects, there is neither any subcontracting to African companies nor any capacity building. Most of the workers are also Chinese nationals.” On the other hand, Ambassador Singh points out that, “the Indian model is cooperative.” India focuses on human resource development, technology transfer, and SME investment. According to him, “the Indian model has succeeded to the point that G7 countries today individually want to work with India in Africa for trilateral cooperation.” As per the Ambassador, “African leaders and governments recognise this difference.
They used to say: China does more, but India does better.” Future of India-Africa relation On the future of India-Africa relations, Ambassador Singh stressed that India’s strengths lie in long-standing people-to-people ties, its diaspora, small and medium enterprises, educational and development partnerships. On joint projects, Ambassador Singh says, “We need to change our project model. Many past initiatives failed because India funded them entirely, and the host country felt no ownership. Unless the host country provides the funding, don’t go. Get that commitment first, then support them fully. IIT Madras in Zanzibar is already built on this principle: local financing, Indian soft power.” As per Ambassador Singh, it is no longer about whether India and Africa fought for non-alignment, decolonisation and terrorism together. “Africa today is transactional. What counts is simpler: how good was your last engagement with me?” He adds.
The BriefWire