From the beginning of the 21st century, the rise of the emerging powers gears up the momentum of a new round of South-South cooperation. The establishment of the India-Africa Forum in 2008 shows that the cooperation mechanisms between India and Africa has been taken to a similar level to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. This article tries to explore the features of the India-Africa cooperation mechanisms and its implications for China-Africa cooperation.

I. Features of India-Africa Cooperation Mechanisms

India’s cooperation mechanisms with Africa have four obvious features:

First of all, it’s overall planning and coordination on the top, and collaboration between branches of internal and external affairs. At the apex of the Indian government, the National Security Council and the Trade and Economic Relations Committee (TERC, headed by the Prime Minister) are established as the highest-level advisory and decision-making institutions for national security strategy, foreign policy and foreign economic relations. Above all, the TERC is of great significance to India’s foreign economic cooperation. It is designed to deal with pivotal foreign economic relations in a coordinated and synchronized manner and in order to reduce the influence of bureaucracy.[①] The committee was not established for the exclusive purpose of dealing with African issues in the first place, yet without doubt it is there that the continent is dealt with.

On the executive level, the economic division under the Ministry of External Affairs directs economic operations of foreign bureaus, interacts intensively with various ministries, apex chambers of commerce and industry, business organizations, trade promotion councils and agencies and the business community to evolve strategies and coordinate relevant domestic institutions.[②] The Indian embassies and consulates serve as the bridgehead in the cooperation with foreign countries.

The second is the Connection between high and low levels, and joint efforts by public and private sectors. India’s cooperation mechanisms with Africa can be divided into three levels: Firstly, Institutional partnership built by non-governmental organizations and private enterprises, for example, the Indo-African Chamber of Commerce ＆ Industries. Secondly, Mechanisms initiated by non-governmental organizations and supported by the Indian government, such as the Conclave on India-Africa Project Partnership and the ‘Made in India’ Show, which enjoy the support of the Ministry of Commerce and Industries and Ministry of External Affairs. Thirdly, Cooperation mechanisms established by the Indian government: On the state level, the India-Africa Forum Summit established the partnership between India and Africa in an official legal document, providing a platform for direct interaction and cooperation. On the ministry level, there are India-Africa Hydrocarbon Conference and cooperation between the Export-Import Bank of India and the African Development Bank Group and some sub-regional development banks and Export-Import Banks. [③]

By examining the high and low levels of the India’s cooperation mechanisms with Africa, one soon seems to detect a so-called “Indian inc. phenomenon”: In the relations between India and Africa, the private sectors of India play a pivotal role, sometimes even a leading role. It has built up tremendous institutional contacts with Africa for a long time, while the Indian government acts as a promoter and coordinator[④] and the non-governmental organizations serve as the bridge and power drive shaft between them.

The third feature is the complementariness of multilateral and bilateral approaches. In the light of its limited economic and diplomatic clout, India has distinct priorities in the implementation of its economic and trade strategies in Africa. Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa, which are influential countries in the region, are pillars to the relationship network that India is building and extending. In addition, countries rich in oil and resources or countries that have prominent Indian communities like Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya and Mauritius, are top priorities on India’s diplomatic agenda.

Furthermore, India attaches great importance to the function of multilateral mechanisms to strengthen the relations with Africa. The African Union, the eight African regional economic communities, the G77, the G15, the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation, India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum, the World Bank, and the United Nations are all effective platforms for India to cooperate with Africa.

And finally, it’s the combination of traditional and newly-developed projects. At the beginning of the 21st century, India’s foreign assistance projects under the administration of the Ministry of External Affairs grew rapidly along with the increase of favorable line of credits provided by EXIM Bank of India. The scale and frequency of its bilateral aid to African countries and the number of the beneficiary countries have been increasing[⑤]. India has made it clear that capacity building like education and training would continue to receive priority in the endeavor to deepen links with Africa, and infrastructure development also would be actively facilitated[⑥].

Compared with the strategies in the Cold War era, there is a major change in India’s efforts to carry out cooperation projects in Africa. Besides reiterating the similar historical and cultural experience, India adds emphasis to the values of democracy and human rights. India not only reiterates that it shares the same value of pluralist democracy with many African nations but also advocates democracy and human rights by foreign aid in the areas of the economy and in education.

II. Implications for China’s Africa Policy

India’s cooperation mechanisms with Africa play an important role in achieving its goals in Africa. There are some aspects of it that are worth learning for China.

Firstly, China should emphasize the significance of the coordination mechanisms at the top. China has established a Central Foreign Affairs Leading Group and a Central Financial and Economic Leading Group and some ministerial coordination mechanisms. Yet, interests of ministries and local governments drag down the process of foreign policy and foreign economic relations, which leads to the inter-departmental conflicts of interests and waste of resources. Hence, it is urgent for China to establish an overall strategic coordination mechanism at the top. For the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), it still holds a subordinate position in China’s diplomacy. In order to improve the development of the cooperation relations between China and Africa and coordinate the foreign policies on Africa, China needs to negotiate with Africa to promote the levels of the Follow-up Committee on Forum on China-Africa Cooperation to coordinate the work of sub-forums and policies of local governments on Africa.

Secondly, China should encourage the active involvement of private enterprises and non-governmental organizations. Although there are also a lot of Chinese private enterprises operating in Africa, they are too scattered to be influential. The imperfections of the domestic legal system cause a lack of social responsibility of Chinese private enterprises in Africa, which hinders the progress of setting a good image of China, and government restrictions on the private sector make it too weak to invest in overseas markets on a large scale. The underdevelopment of non-governmental organizations like private business association at home limits the effort of the Chinese government to instruct and manage the private sectors in Africa, which also makes it difficult to effectively interact with the local society. In future, China needs to construct a network of coordination of governments, enterprises, universities and research institutes to deepen the cooperation with Africa. The government should step back by providing lower taxation, bank guarantee and other economic measures to encourage, standardize and legalize the operations of private enterprises in Africa, while the non-governmental organizations take the lead to unify and manage the private sector.

Thirdly, China should underline the role of key countries in Africa. In the future, China should rather learn to balance between Africa as a whole and its key nations as its constituent parts. Some of India’s experiences are worth learning for China: One should take regional powers, countries rich in strategic resources and traditional friendly countries as the strategic pillars of China’s relations with Africa. This would form a coherent and multi-dimensional cooperation mechanism featured by bilateral interaction that drives the sub-regional multilateral cooperation.

Fourthly, we should enable the functions of multilateral cooperation mechanisms. Learning from India’s experience, China should not only support the implementation of the UN Millennium Development Goals but also promote multilateral cooperation with mechanisms such as the BRICS. In order to set a clear signal for the promotion of mutual development between BRICS and Africa, the headquarters of the development bank of BRICS should be located in South Africa and development fund of the BRICS for Africa should be launched. These funds could provide substance for departments of investment, trade, personnel training and environment protection. India has a preference for working in the IBSA framework, a mechanism which includes three emerging economies, when it comes to cooperation activities in Africa. Yet, BRICS, which includes China and Russia, is open towards other developing countries and is thus more open and more suitable than IBSA as a cooperation platform.

Fifthly, enhance capacity building projects of education and training. China also has a large scale of aid projects on education and training in Africa, sometimes even overtaking India’s effort, but the results are not satisfying[⑦]. Thus, the quality of capacity building should receive priorities from the Chinese authorities in future. This means two things. First, the education and training projects should be applicable to the conditions of African nations. And secondly, it is also necessary to enhance the institutionalization of follow-up work from these training programmes and construct the platforms that help to nurture these human resources.

And finally, advocate common values. The revolutionary friendship between China and African nations formed in the Cold War era is gradually waning, which invariably hinders the process of deepening cooperation between the two sides. In future, China should spend more effort on exchanging and sharing experience of governing and managing with Africa, promoting the idea of equality, mutual trust, inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutually beneficial cooperation and raising the awareness about human beings sharing a community of common destiny.
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This article is the short version of a contribution to The China Monitor (2013): Special Edition: The BRICS Summit 2013 – Is the Road from Durban Leading into Africa?, Stellenbosch, Centre for Chinese Studies (www.sun.ac.za/ccs).
[①] See “The Trade and Economic Relations Committee,” http://pmindia.nic.in/committeescouncils _details.php? nodeid=9, November 9, 2012.
[②] “India's Foreign Relations, 1998-99,” http://www.indianembassy.org/policy/Foreign_Policy/ FP_1999/Economic_Relations_FP_98-99.html, September 1, 2010.
[③] Habiba Ben Barka and Kupukile Mlambo, “India’s Economic Engagement with Africa,” Africa Economic Brief, Volume 2, Issue 6, May 11, 2011.
[④] Gareth Price, “For the Global Good: India’s Developing International Role—A Chatham House Report,” The Royal Institute of International Affairs, May 2011.
[⑤] Emma Mawdsley and Gerard McCann, “The Elephant in the Corner? Reviewing India-Africa Relations in the New Millennium,” Geography Compass, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2010, pp. 81–93.
[⑥] Rajiv Bhatia, “India-Africa summit: from agreement to action,” http://www.hindu.com/2011/06 /09/stories/2011060952991100.htm, June 9, 2011.
[⑦] Parvathi Vasudevan, “The Changing Nature of Nigeria–India Relations,” Chatham House Programme Paper: AFP 2010/02, December 2010.

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