India-Africa

Why Africa for India?

Emerging Market: World Bank notes that the African continent houses 6 of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Africa hence offers India businesses a huge market for their goods and rich demographic dividend for production through foreign investments

 Indian corporates are significantly involved in agri-businesses, engineering, construction, film distribution, pharmaceuticals and telecommunication. The Indian-African Business Council has enabled greater cooperation in the Track 2 diplomacy between economies

Energy Security: Engagements with Africa for energy production and distribution can help diversify India’s dependence on West Asia for energy.

Nuclear Energy: Several of the African countries have reserves of Uranium and Thorium that can enable India to produce atomic energy given India gains access to them.

Soft Power Diplomacy: India’s capacity building and humanitarian efforts in Africa have earned it great goodwill across countries and multilateral platforms in contrast to China’s chequebook diplomacy and closed model of development

Multilateral Diplomacy: African countries are pivotal to India securing its bid for UNSC and NSG. South Africa has been an important partner in BRICS given the increasing south-south cooperation and historical linkages between India and South Africa

Historical Relations: India and Africa are bounded by South-South cooperation manifested in the Non-Aligned Movement. The Gandhian freedom movement in India and South Africa further cement historical linkages between India and Africa

India’s initiatives

Indo-Africa Summit: First held in 2008, the Indo-Africa summit has evolved to be the official platform for India-Africa relations signifying greater cooperation in economic and strategic domains. Doing away with the Banjul Formula, India now engages with all African countries through the summit.

Pan-Africa e-network: India has focused on capacity building and institution development in Africa leveraging ICT measures. Through the Pan Africa e-network, it aims easy access to social services such as e-health, e-education and e-governance services to Africa.

Team 9: The Team 9 initiative focuses on the development of 9 backward West African countries through an open inclusive model of development

Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation: Through ITEC measures, India aims to inculcate skill development and skills transfer with a view to enhance the capacities of African economies in a win-win for all.

Para-Diplomacy: A new trend in the relationship has been states directly engaging with Africa for economic engagements.

Eg: Kerala is planning on importing cashew from Africa for its processing plants

Cultural Diplomacy: Indian diaspora has positive relations with African people and the civilian governments. Historical linkages and Bollywood movies have served as key integrating factors for people in the region.

Concerns

Limited Diplomatic Engagements: Africa continues to be limited in presence in India’s foreign policy engagements. India is yet to establish embassies in several of the African countries

Chinese Presence: China through its chequebook diplomacy has made great inroads into Africa. It has been able to deliver on its promise better than India. This has led many African countries to strategically embrace China at the expense of India.

Eg: Chinese Port in Djibouti

Lack of Economic Coordination: Indian businesses have little coordination with the state that compromises avenues of symbiotic Indo-African economic cooperation. Several Indian businesses have also been accused of unethical business practices in Africa

Eg: Karuturi Global, an Indian company accused of land grabs in Ethiopia

Instability in Africa: India’s investments and business engagements face the threat of extremist and insurgent elements in Africa. They pose a threat to India’s developmental and infrastructure projects like the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor

Eg: Boko haram in Nigeria

Enormous Diversity: India cannot proceed with a uniform foreign policy towards a continent as diverse as Africa in political, socio-cultural and economic spheres. It needs to step up its bilateral engagements with nations identifying complementary areas of cooperation

Conclusion

India needs to engage with Africa as a partner and elder brother in its resurgence harnessing its potential based on the Panchasheel ideals of equality, mutual respect for sovereignty, peaceful co-existence and mutual benefit. This would bonds the nations together on the Gandhian ideals that united them in the colonial era.

Great Game

In the new Great Game for Africa, there seems to be space for the Elephant and the Dragon in the hot deserts of Sahara and the Equatorial forests. India needs to focus on its capacity-building inclusive aid diplomacy driven model to counter china’s infrastructure building neo-imperialistic cheque book diplomacy for its own peaceful rise.

Antarctica

Antarctica has been treated as a Global Commons with no nation holding sovereign rights. The Antarctic Treaty proposes that all countries would use Antarctica solely for the purpose of scientific research despite the Antarctic holding rich reserves of energy and minerals.

Antarctic Treaty

• Lays down that Antarctica shall remain peaceful without international discord
• Prohibits military activity, nuclear explosions and disposal of nuclear waste
• Promotes scientific research and exchange of data
• India has signed the treaty

Concerns

                The geodynamics in the Arctic region and the sovereign rights of littoral nations there may offset a similar rush for resources violating the principle of Global Commons. India needs to use its status in the Arctic Council and the UN to maintain the spirit of the Antarctic Treaty. In the period of climate change, the last pristine frontiers on the planet cannot be depleted for greed.

Conclusion

                As opposed to the Arctic, the Antarctic has signified a region of cooperation and harmony that is conducive to the world and environment. India as a responsible major power should strive to maintain the spirit of the treaty and ensure continued peace and research in the region expending its base stations of Maitri and Dakshin Gangotri

Arctic Region

Introduction

The melting of the Arctic ice offers both challenges and opportunities to the international community. Despite India being a non-littoral state, the impacts of melting ice and the opportunities it offers in the form of resources and energy are of key interest to India.

What Arctic Offers?

Benefits of Shipping: As the ice melts, the ocean region offers new lanes of shipping that vastly reduce logistics cost and better linkages between North America, Europe, East Asia and Asia. This has the potential to reduce the relevance of current strategic choke points like the Bosphorous and the Suez canal

Energy Potential: The arctic is said to hold 40% of the current HC and oil reserves whose extraction and use has become feasible due to climate change. This has the potential to realign current geo-polity from the oil-rich Middle East to Arctic Council countries

Climate Change: The melting of ice and the subsequent increase in sea levels, temperatures and destruction of animal habitats pose a grave threat to the environmental balance of the world. Countries must get together in the spirit of the PCA to fight climate change

The exploitation of Marine Resources A boon to blue diplomacy

Arctic Council

• Members: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Russia, Canada and the United States
• An intergovernmental body that focuses on sustainable development and environment protection of the Arctic region
• India and China are among the 12 observer states to the Arctic Council

Geo-Political Scenario

            The sovereign claims of littoral states to the rich resources and shipping lanes of the Arctic may in a future shift back the balance of power from the Asia Pacific to the North Atlantic. The littoral states of Denmark, Canada, US, Russia and Norway would grow in prominence.

            The exploitation of these resources threatens to exacerbate the challenge of climate change that the world is faced with today.  The Arctic expedition of the developed European and North American states reflect the Carbon Imperialism they impose on developing nations. While they themselves intensify carbon-emitting practices, they preach to the developing countries like India to shift to clean energy resources.

India’s Stand

            India recently became an observer to the Arctic Council thereby recognizing the sovereign rights of the littoral states in using the shipping lanes and expending the resources in the Arctic. India also accepted that the UNCLOS would be used to decide on any territorial claim. This has effectively ended the debate on whether the arctic would be a ‘global commons’ like the Antarctic.

Opportunities of Arctic Council

• Research for Climate Change: An observer status in the council enables India to take part in scientific research to understand the changing arctic environment and associated climate change that will have serious repercussions: ocean acidification, sea level rise change in ocean currents and weather patterns
• Sustainably Manage Arctic: Limit effects of human activity on the Arctic to safeguard to world and environment

What India Should do?

            India should use its position in the council to sustainably manage the Arctic to mitigate the effects of climate change assuming leadership on the part of non-littoral states in the spirit of the Paris deal.

            India should take the lead in putting Arctic on the agenda of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change drawing attention to its global commons character and the challenge of climate change that its exploitation poses.

No Resource Access/ Sharing: India shall not push for its own access to and use of the Arctic resources.

A UN Body: India within the limits of its observer status should seek for a UN body on the lines of the Indian Ocean Commission. Such an arctic body can set norms and limits, monitor activities of the littoral states in the Arctic and put in a credible compliance mechanism.

China’s Position

            China has made clear its intentions that the Arctic is a Global Commons and that its resource base should be expended by all countries. Its strategic acquisitions in Russia, Canada and the Polar Silk Road project are the manifestation of this intent

• Polar Silk Road- China’s Project in the Arctic to exploit natural resources of the Arctic, set up inter-continental connectivity and invest in telecommunication projects

Conclusion

The Arctic offers a great opportunity for India on the world stage to garner reputation as a responsible major power which the littoral nations have failed in garnering. India should not be a party to the Northern Gold Rush that would invariably threaten a Southern Gold Rush. As a champion of equitable burden-sharing and intergenerational equity, India needs to assume leadership in putting ecological harmony over reckless development.

Pacific Islands

            India’s relationship with the Island nations in the Pacific is shaped by its engagements at the FIPIC organization. The multi-dimensional nature of cooperation India shares with the island nations enables it to gain soft power and goodwill critical in multilateral diplomacy as a world leader.

Areas of Cooperation

• Climate Change and Clean Energy: India aims to provide special fund for adapting to climate change and clean energy for the Island Nations.
• Establishing a trade office in India: The island nations provide a relatively untapped market for India’s goods and services. The blue economy can serve as a bridge between the Pacific Islands to India’s shores.
• Digital Networks: India aims to leverage IT to bridge the global digital divide that plagues the Pacific Islands. The Pan Pacific Islands e-network to improve digital connectivity illustrates India’s commitment to infrastructure building in the Island nations
• Space Cooperation: India aims to cooperate using its space technology in the spirit of the South Asian satellite. This can help both India and the nations understand the rapidly changing weather patterns and disaster prediction critical to the island nations and the South Asian peninsula
• Strategic Positions: The Island nations by virtue of their positions hold great strategic importance for India as partners. The strategic elevation of the relationship can enable India to push for a free and open Indo-Pacific and establish free trade based relations with the Pacific nations

Challenges

• India’s history as a partner that promises but does not deliver
• China, U.S, U.K and Australia have a head start in engaging with these nations

Conclusion

            In the spirit of the Gujral Doctrine and the Panchasheel, India shall follow a policy of asymmetrical engagement with the Island nations grounded on principles of equality, mutual respect and benefit