India, Africa foreign ministers discuss ways to expand ties

Third India-Africa Forum Summit began in New Delhi on Monday

The third India Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) began in New Delhi on Monday, seeking to strengthen trade and investment ties between India and the African continent, even as India banks on historical linkages to counter China’s growing influence in Africa.

The summit began with a meeting of officials from 54 African countries. Both sides negotiated two documents — political one and framework for cooperation — ministry of external affairs (MEA) spokesperson Vikas Swarup told reporters.

“We stand for human resources in Africa. Human resources are the most-important element in any society. Any other resources are peripheral to our engagement. Our engagement with Africa is in terms of human resources, people-to-people contact, exchange of ideas, capacity-building, where we can gain and Africa can gain,” said additional secretary and IAFS’ chief co-ordinator Syed Akbaruddin, when asked about China’s growing influence in the African markets.

On Tuesday, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will meet foreign ministers from African countries such as Ghana, Congo, Cameron, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. The main summit meeting between prime minister Narendra Modi and heads of 54 African countries will be on Thursday.

“We are confident that every country invited will be present when our prime minister takes the floor on Thursday. This is unprecedented in the annals of any summit between Africa and any other country,” Akbaruddin said. On the line  of credit offered by India to African countries, Akbaruddin hinted the number might increase. He, however, denied reports that $15 billion worth of line of credit was on the anvil.

So far, India has granted a line of credit worth $7.2 billion, of which $5 billion has been approved.

On Africa gaining more access to Indian drugs, Akbaruddin said the countries were looking for other opportunities to expand this cooperation and source greater number of drugs from India. At present, Africa sources 85 per cent of all HIV retroviral drugs from India. HIV is human immunodeficiency virus.

On the other hand, India is a planning to seek African cooperation in mobile banking.