India Dips A Finger In The African Pie, China Is Still Far Ahead!

India follows the West’s lead in trying to dip a deep finger in the African pie, but China is still far ahead in the race for resources in the continent.

- John Cherian

 

The three-day India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) held in New Delhi from October 27 to 29 was, according to Indian officials, the most important event held in the capital since the 1983 Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had been preparing for more than a year to make the IAFS a grandiose event. The previous IndiaAfrica summits, organised when the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was in power, were in contrast modest affairs with only a small group of African leaders being invited. The first IAFS was held in 2008 in New Delhi and the second one in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, in 2011. Only 15 African leaders were invited for the 2011 summit.

This time, 52 African countries were represented. The heads of state of leading African countries such as South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt were among them. The decision to make it a humongous event that brought the nation’s capital to a virtual halt for two days was taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. The event was supposed to be held last year but got postponed at the eleventh hour owing to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. A few African heads of state had in fact landed in Delhi to attend the summit last year. Others cancelled their visits at the last minute. Many African governments were unhappy at the way the situation was handled by the Indian government.