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Modi’s African Sojourn: ENLARGING THE EMBRACE, By Dr D.K. Giri, 3 August 2018 Print E-mail

Round The World

New Delhi, 3 August 2018

Modi’s African Sojourn

ENLARGING THE EMBRACE

By Dr D.K. Giri

(Prof. International Politics, JMI)

 

Prime Minister Modi’s three-nation sojourn in Africa was innovative. He announced to open 18 new Indian Embassies across Africa; enunciated a 10-point approach to tackle African problem through joint initiatives, as well as spelt out climate change and extremism as examples of common challenges that should be addressed. All of this is praiseworthy, but “the devil lies in the details” and implementation, which is a nagging deficit in India’s approach.

 

In the five-day African tour, Modi’s first leg was Rwanda, covered in last week’s column, followed by Uganda and the last South Africa, to attend BRICS meeting. The Ugandan visit came two decades after an Indian Prime Minister went there and Modi’s address to its   Parliament was the ‘first’ by an Indian head of government. Obviously, Modi managed to rekindle the spirit of friendship and cooperation between India and Uganda after the very bitter memories of persecution of Indians by the infamous dictator Idi Amin Dada in 1970s.

 

The ceremonial colourful African-style welcome extended to Modi underlined Uganda’s willingness to embrace India and the invitation to address their parliament signified the salience they accord to their engagement with India. On his part, Modi as expected paved the way for our diplomats and business houses to make inroads into resource-rich Uganda. He reminded his audience at Parliament, India-Uganda business community and the Indian diaspora that India and Africa constitute one-third of world’s population, and hence they should have a commensurate share in world governance and resources.

 

Importantly, while lamenting that Africa has 60 per cent of arable land but produces only 10 per cent of global output, he promised that India would contribute to modernising Uganda’s agriculture system, provide $200 million line of credit for energy infrastructure, agriculture and dairy sectors, plus invest more in their health sector.

 

Lauding resource-rich Uganda as the ‘pearl of Africa’, Modi praised Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni Museveni for restoring peace, harmony and sanity after the dictatorial regime of Amin that spread hatred, bloodshed and disruption. Museveni has been the President since 1986 and was involved in the resistance movements against Amin and his predecessor Milton Obote.

 

The visit was also used for recalling India’s role in building Afro-Asian solidarity, commencing from Bandung, Indo-Asia in 1955, and prior to that, Mahatma Gandhi’s work in South Africa on peaceful and non-violent resistance against oppression, and racism, which became a beacon for the whole Africa. In fact, as a part of 150th birth anniversary of Gandhi, Modi promised to build a Gandhi Heritage Centre at Jinja, Uganda which has a prominent Gandhi statue. The Centre would be a store-house of Gandhian teachings on humanity and techniques for small-scale livelihood generation.

 

In all, India and Uganda signed four agreements in defence, visa exemption for diplomats and government passport holders, cultural exchange, and a material testing laboratory. New Delhi support for Ugandan development would cover sectors like capacity building, HRD, skill development, innovation natural resources, tourism etc. Museveni particularly sought permission for its national Airlines to run from capital, Kampala, to Mumbai and drew attention to their persisting trade deficit with India.

 

Modi’s last leg of the tour was South Africa to attend the 10th edition of BRICS Summit. The two countries have deep historical links mainly through Mahatma Gandhi. Incidentally, this is the 125 year of Gandhi episode at Pietermaritzburg railway station. Recall, it was here he was thrown off the 1st class compartment bag and baggage for refusing to leave it, even though he was entitled to travel. But the apartheid South Africa did not let him and it was this incident that prompted Gandhiji to stay on for 21 years fighting for civil rights.

 

Subsequently, India played a big role in fighting against the apartheid regime and 25 years ago both countries established full diplomatic relations. In order to commemorate these links, Modi and President Cyril Ramaphosa agreed to build a Gandhi-Mandela Centre for specialisation on artisan skills. Since Gandhi, Indian agricultural research and education numbering 1.5 million, three per cent of South African population have been an integral part of South Africa.

 

On business, three MoUs were signed on IT, defence, and exploration and use of the outer space. Both leaders agreed to deepen the contacts and continue to collaborate internationally. Finally, Modi moved on to the stage of the BRICS Summit: ‘BRICS in Africa Collaborations for inclusive growth, shared prosperity in the 4th Industrial Revolution’. The other leaders included Chinese President Xi-Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Michel Temer, South African President as well as Argentinian President Mauricio Macri, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who at the end came out with 102-point declaration, which included a preamble and four sections.

 

The second section was about strengthening multilateralism, reaffirming global governance and addressing common challenges; the third covered issues like strengthening and consolidating BRICS collaboration in international peace and security and the fourth talks about partnership for global economic recovery, reform of economic and financial global governance institutions and the 4th Industrial Revolution. Finally, the last section was about people-to-people cooperation.

 

A glance at the intension shows the usual cooperation argument. Nothing new about it! But the focus of BRICS in Johannesburg was Africa. That was significant if BRICS, in unison, engaged with Africa in its development and growth effort. It will mean something for both Africa as well as BRICS. But like the European Union, which has common adjectives in foreign and economic policy, disintegration into member States following their economic and trade agreements, BRICS is doing the same.

 

China is arguably penetrating into Africa as it came after India, which is also sloughing to consolidate its position. So, in a sense, China and India are competitors in Africa not collaborators as BRICS would envision. So like many summits, whether the BRICS resolutions will evaporate into thin air as member States’ compete and collide with each other, is a question? Another being how South Block pushes and implements Modi’s promises made on this visit. Good Luck India and Africa relations!---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

 

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