For India, the AfDB meet is purely strategic

New Delhi must expand its footprint in Africa to counter Beijing’s reach

India’s strategic safari took a step further this week with the African Development Bank (AfDB) holding its annual meeting for the first time in this country. The meeting puts some important financial and policy flesh to the new relationship developing between India and the continent, which was politically signalled by the largest-ever India-Africa Forum Summit in 2015. New Delhi had become a vigorous provider of lines of credit as part of its aid programme. These provided a useful bridge for Indian firms to find local business partners and establish a commercial presence in Africa. An additional stamp of legitimacy has now been provided to this programme by the AfDB, acting as an intermediary for such concessional finance. In addition, the summit will see India and Japan workout the modalities of an economic and transport corridor, probably through eastern and southern Africa, which will be a path breaker in terms of India partnering with another country to carry out an aid project in another set of countries.

India’s relationship with Africa is entering a new phase. Indian trade with the continent is doubling every five years and is now a larger trading partner for Africa than Japan or the US. Over 15% of India’s overseas investment now goes to Africa.

There is today a much more of a strategic play in what India does with Africa. This is partly because of New Delhi’s concerns about non-State threats from the continent. It also reflects Indian concerns that it has done little to cement political and military ties in its own maritime backyard at a time when US influence is waning and the Chinese presence is rising. Beijing’s Belt Road initiative underline why New Delhi needs to become a much larger player in Africa. Among the areas outside of Asia, eastern and southern Africa will emerge as the most important geographical areas of interest to India in the new century.