Modi to score big point with Africa Summit as record number of 51 countries confirm participation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is out to make a point to the international community a little over a fortnight from now when his government hosts India’s biggest ever diplomatic spectacle at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi stadium: the third India Africa Forum Summit. A whopping number of 51 African states — out of a total of 54 — have so far confirmed their participation for the 26-29 October event. [caption id=“attachment_2462946” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Narendra Modi. Reuters[/caption] Only three countries have so far held summits with Africa so far, apart from India: US, China and Japan. The highest participation was for US when 50 African states had participated. When China and Japan hosted their own Africa summits, 47 and 42 African states had participated respectively. This means that India is set to better the record of the world’s three top economies. This is huge for any country. Domestically also the Modi government is set to score an important political point over the previous UPA I and UPA II governments which had organised the first two India Africa summits. The first summit, held in New Delhi in 2007, was attended by 14 African heads of state/government while the second one in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2011 was attended by 15. By the time leaders of 51 countries converge in Delhi the Bihar elections would have reached a decisive stage and it would be ideal time for PM Modi as well as the BJP to milk it politically. And the man who is going to pull it off for the Modi government is none other than the Prime Minister’s blued eyed boy Syed Akbaruddin, additional secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs and in-charge of the logistical arrangements of the summit. Akbaruddin has already been rewarded for his exceptional work and given plum post of India’s Permanent Representative in United Nations in New York primarily on grounds of merit. Next week India will begin negotiations with Africa Union to prepare a draft of the formal outcome documents of the 3rd India Africa Forum Summit which may well be a Declaration and an Action Plan. Like in the previous two summits, India and Africa will be identifying areas of cooperation like human resources and institutional capacity building and education, science & technology, agricultural productivity and food security, industrial growth, development in the health sector and development of infrastructure and will also come up with newer areas of cooperation. A new Indian strategy this time is to involve many countries and organisations to give new thrust to India-Africa cooperation. For example, countries like Singapore and United Arab Emirates have been invited as special observers. More countries may be added to this list by next week. Besides, specialised Africa — centric organizations like UNAIDS, Africa Union and African Development Bank have also been invited for the summit as special observers. The idea behind this is to speed up project-based developmental cooperation with African states and make it more effective. While under the leadership of Akbaruddin one can expect foolproof logistics but the main thing would be policy issues and Akbaruddin is not in-charge of policy making. India will have to draft policies which find favour with all 54 African countries and also give rival power like China the run for its money. India has started focusing on Africa only in last few years while China has been in Africa for decades. Moreover, China is slated to hold its next summit with Africa in South Africa just two months later.