confidentially speaking
The Africa Confidential Blog
India steps up
Blue Lines
Just in time to offer some respite from the China slowdown blues, enter India, hosting an Africa summit on
26-29 October. With 41 African heads of state in attendance, it seems
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
got the timing right, with promises to deepen trade and diplomatic ties.
Nobody expects India to repeat the dizzying rise of China's trade with
Africa – from under US$10 billion in 1995 to over $220 bn. in 2015 –
but India's attention is useful tactically for African leaders. They
can play off India against China, just as they have played off Beijing
against Washington, Paris and London, and even Moscow. There is also
strategic substance in the India-Africa relationship. Like India, most
African countries run multiparty political systems and Premier Modi has
put some useful money on the table: $10 bn. in soft loans over the next
five years and $600 million in grants. Much of China's aid
disproportionately benefits local leaders' interests.
Most Indian trade with Africa is private sector-led, so the hope is
that it will be more resistant to government budget cuts and slowdowns.
Indian businesses have been implanted in Eastern and Southern Africa
for the last century. As the two regions look across the Indian Ocean
at each other, they are building closer security and diplomatic links.
One predictable agreement from the summit was on reform of the United
Nations Security Council: African leaders joined with Modi to press for
new seats on the council to represent their regions. Cue deafening
silence from Beijing.
