New vision

The recent five-nation trip took Prime Minister Narendra Modi to three continents spread over tens of thousands of miles.

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While the visits to Brazil for the BRICS Summit and to Trinidad and Tobago and Argentina were all significant, there was a deep symbolism to the manner in which Mr Modi bookended his travels, starting out in Ghana and returning to Africa with a trip to Namibia. New Delhi, of course, has never abandoned Africa. But it has, far too often, shown interest in deepening its engagement with the continent, only to then get distracted, undermining its own previous efforts. In Namibia, Mr Modi laid out what amounts to a fresh vision for India's relations with Africa. And the timing could not be more critical. At a time when China's deep influence in the continent is facing pushback in some African nations