India and Africa: Can old friendships thrive in a new world?

With the ongoing India- Africa Summit taking place in Delhi, India one cannot emphasize the need that such a historical event has been overdue. Yes it is high time that we build on our centuries old relations and push for further enhancement of cooperation in regards to politics, trade, science and technology and other areas of mutual concern.

Africa has a lot to learn form the Indian experience as we share so much in regards to history and cultures. In fact India has trade relations with Africa stretching for centuries, both parties have supported each other during their quests for independence, Mahatma Gandhi first experimented with his civil disobedience movement right here in South Africa, both have partnered together in the Non-Aligned movement. The Indian paradigm has often been a point of discussions on how Africa should go about in reclaiming its past prestige no doubt key issues here would be in areas of food security, eradicating poverty and improvement of the livelihood of their peoples.

Trade too is an area where both sides could benefit a lot from where expansion of a two-way trade, creating greater market access, encourage trade negotiations, dispute settlement and investment facilitation need much brooding over. However when we speak of true partnership we should not over emphasize our dealing on aid alone but rather on cooperation to boost each other’s capacity and work towards creating probably one of the world’s largest trade coalition. Mutual support is the right way to go but Africa too needs to do some house cleaning we need to make sure that we properly utilize the help and support we get and build on these to finally do away with years of neglect and economic stagnation. We need to build and strengthen democracies across the continent and create the necessary critical mass towards achieving political will that will take us towards a new era of African history. Defunct politics and their byproducts continue to create heartache and impede any progress within the continent.

India too needs to understand that partnership should translate into a clear cut relationship where both parties benefit- the bounty is plenty and we should all look towards sharing. India can look towards bringing in more manufactured produce from Africa in exchange for her help in building capacity in that sector. Africa’s export base must be diversified by focusing on engineering and production goods and information technology (IT). India can help by sharing here experience in this area of experience. supplementing each other in industry and technology transfer should be the approach rather than short term trade deals. The telemedicine project is an area that should be replicated across the board in regards to cooperation. Politically both sides can also forge a strong front in regards to global security, trade talks and even UN reform. There are previous experiences in such collaboration the Non-Aligned movement is a case in point here.

With the current global economic turmoil both sides can work together and come out of the crisis and also look at ways in stemming the hemorrhage of resources from Africa. The brain drain is something that India has been able to change not brain gain this is truly is an area where Africa can really look into. Africa continues to loose out in regards to its skilled manpower for one reason or the other we should all look for a lasting solution towards reclaiming the losses we have incurred. One believes that An India-Africa pact does have a myriad of opportunities for both parties. But we can only exploit these opportunities when we are prepared to go for the long haul- half hearted measures will only bring us dismal results.