FROM APARTHEID TO ALLIANCE

Celebrating 30 Years of India-South Africa Relations

- Ambikesh Kumar Tripathi

India and South Africa are two countries held so closely by bonds of sentiment, common values, and shared experience, by the affinity of cultures and traditions and by geography', President Mandela. Both countries have a basic and distinctive relationship that dates back several centuries and is based on shared principles, concepts, interests, and figures like Mahatma and Mandela. Nonetheless, because of South Africa's apartheid regime, their bilateral relationship remained tense for a very long period and was reopened only after the end of the apartheid regime in the early 1990s. The mutual experiences and strength of India and South Africa have shaped their visions - how both would have to see the world together; and the obligation to enrich the lives of mankind is engraved in their foreign policies as they share the same path of the struggle for freedom against colonialism. Speaking at Jawahar Lal Nehru University in December 1996, the then Deputy President Thabo Mbeki observes that 'Our common hope of success will depend on our ability to act together. We are reassured that we can count on India as our strategic partner in this historic endeavour which seeks to give birth to a new world order of just and lasting world peace, of prosperity for all peoples and equality among nations'.

Historical Background