India follows China to Africa

NEW DELHI: Eighteen months after China stunned the world by parading leaders from 48 African countries at a summit meeting in Beijing in November 2006, India is moving to consolidate its smaller, but growing, presence on the continent.

The India-Africa Forum summit in New Delhi from April 4 to 8 will mark the culmination of India’s quiet diplomacy in a continent that is fast becoming the nerve centre of great power rivalry in the hunt for new sources of energy and minerals.

Unlike the Beijing jamboree, India’s will be a more modest show, with just 14 participating heads of state. But the real story is not in the  numbers.

It lies in the fact that the movers and shakers of the summit are the Africans themselves, who clearly want to balance China’s overwhelming and aggressive moves in their continent with India’s gentler touch.

The Beijing summit produced big ticket results that sent waves of concern coursing through western nations whose grip over Africa has been steadily slipping into Chinese hands.

China announced credit lines worth US $5 billion and signed commercial deals worth US $1.9 billion at the end of the meet.

It also declared that it would double aid to Africa by 2009 and pledged to push trade to the US $100 billion mark by 2010.

Yet, one month later, Africa Union secretary general AO Konare was knocking at New Delhi’s door, urging the government to make a counter move, if only to let the world know that India too has stakes in the resource-rich nations of his continent.

The summit will prepare an action plan to take the India story in Africa forward. And if all goes well, the CEOs of six leading Indian companies will make presentations of business prospects in different sectors.

The plans are still being finalised but the expectation is that the participating companies will be from among those that are already established in Africa, such as Tatas, Mahindras and the Vedanta group.

The African desire for a stronger Indian presence in the continent has been growing in the wake of a steady disillusionment with Chinese tactics.

Although China has poured in vast amounts of money into infrastructure projects across Africa, Beijing’s generosity comes with many strings.

Much of it has to do with China’s desperate hunger for oil and minerals. Beijing has been almost exploitative in its diplomacy, offering credit in exchange for huge oil blocks in countries like Angola and Sudan, iron ore and platinum in South Africa and Zimbabwe and, more recently, timber from Africa’s immensely rich forests.

The strategy is backfiring now and the most recent evidence is the anti-Chinese riots that broke out in Zambia last year. Faced with growing criticism, China has taken a leaf out of India’s book and is now trying to woo the Africans by sponsoring social development projects in sectors like health and education.

The soft touch, as a senior ministry of external affairs official pointed out, has been India’s strength in Africa. ``We have concentrated on building capacities in areas that the Africans want, not what suits our needs,’’ he said.