New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday pitched for India as an alternative development partner for Africa, calling for a future marked by dialogue, equity and cooperation in a message seen as a veiled contrast with China’s resource-driven engagement with the continent.
Modi’s Africa push comes as India seeks to expand its diplomatic footprint on the continent, where China has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure and mining projects in exchange for access to natural resources.
New Delhi has opened at least 17 new missions in Africa since 2018, and successfully pushed for the inclusion of the African Union (AU) in the G20 during India’s presidency of the grouping in 2023.
“In the 21st century, India’s development lights a path, showing that the Global South can rise, lead, and shape its own future. The message is, You can succeed—on your own terms, without losing your identity,” Modi said in his address to the National Assembly of Namibia.
“For this message to echo louder, we must act together. Let us create a future defined not by power, but by partnership. Not by dominance, but by dialogue. Not by exclusion, but by equity,” he added.
The prime minister was in Namibia for a one-day visit, the first by an Indian leader to the South West African nation since President Pranab Mukherjee’s state visit in 2016. The visit was the last leg of the Modi’s five-nation tour that covered Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina and Brazil before arriving in Windhoek.
In Windhoek, Modi met with the President of Namibia, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, and later addressed the National Assembly. The Indian leader was awarded Namibia’s highest civilian honour, the Order of the Most Ancient Welwitschia Mirabilis. This is the fourth state award conferred on Modi during the five-nation visit.
The visits to Ghana and Namibia build on his visit to Nigeria last year, in an attempt to diplomatically strengthen India’s position in a continent that has seen the entrance of China and Russia as developmental partners in recent years. France, the US and the UK, all long-standing partners in Africa, have recently seen their influence decline.
While Modi did not mention China in his speech, the spectre of Beijing’s reach in Africa hangs over Indian diplomacy in the continent.
In his speech, the prime minister highlighted the $12 billion India has invested in developmental projects in Africa.
“But its real value is in shared growth and shared purpose. We continue to build local skills, create local jobs, and support local innovation,” said Modi. He added that Africa “must not be just a source of raw materials”.
Beijing, for nearly two decades, has lent heavily to African nations in complex deals that give access to natural resources in specific nations. Between 2000 and 2021, China lent roughly $56.9 billion to 19 emerging economies across the world for mining projects in minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements (REEs), according to AidData.
As early as 2008, China signed a resource-for-infrastructure (RFI) deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where Beijing’s Export-Import (Exim) Bank of China agreed to $5.6 billion in development funding in return for its mining companies to pick up a majority stake in a joint venture – Sino-Congolaise Des Mines (Sicomines SARL).
Exim Bank provided a further $2 billion in financing for Sicomines to build a copper-cobalt mine in the Lualaba province in DRC. This mining site is said to have roughly 10 per cent of the total copper and cobalt reserves in the DRC, according to AidData.
Such deals are common across the continent, a point that Modi tried to underline during his address.
“Africa must lead in value creation and sustainable growth. That is why we fully support Africa’s Agenda 2063 for industrialisation. We are ready to expand our cooperation in defence and security. India values Africa’s role in world affairs,” Modi said.
“As two nations forged in the fires of freedom, let us now dream and build a future of dignity, equality and opportunity. Not just for our people, but for all of humanity,” he added.
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Defence, UPI & Cheetahs
Defence was a key topic of discussion between Prime Minister Modi and President Nandi-Ndaitwah.
“With the prime minister’s visit, one of the highlights is that we are taking our relations to a higher strategic level. And by that, I mean that defence or critical minerals are some of the areas that were discussed. In defence, Namibia is interested in the procurement of equipment from India. And we offered them a line of credit, especially for defence,” Rahul Shrivastava, India’s High Commissioner to Namibia, said Wednesday at a special press briefing.
“There are a few more points in defence. For example, we will be donating some equipment. One is a simulator for their training schools. There’s also some infrastructure, IT equipment for their training schools,” he added.
The African nation also translocated its cheetahs to India in 2022, as New Delhi sought to bring the animal back into its ecosystem.
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is set to be launched in the South West African nation later this year. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in April 2024 signed a licensing agreement with the Bank of Namibia, the first of its kind. During the visit, it was announced that the digital payments platform will be adopted soon.
Two agreements were signed in entrepreneurship and health, while Namibia announced that it shall be joining two Indian led global organisations—the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and the Global Biofuel Alliance.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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