The third India-Africa Forum Summit recently held in New Delhi was the largest one since India launched the summit in 2008. It was reportedly attended by representatives of 54 African countries, including over 40 heads of state and government. The scope of the event displays Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's style and ambition of enhancing India's international position through massive diplomatic activities.

The third summit was supposed to be held in December last year, but it was canceled by India because of the Ebola epidemic, which caused dissatisfaction among African countries. Some deemed the unwise and impolite decision lacks respect for African countries since the UN didn't cancel the General Assembly nor did the US cancel its summit with Africa due to Ebola. New Delhi then realized the consequences and Modi gave special instructions to hold the 2015 summit.

By attaching importance to the summit India indicates the value of Africa to the country, primarily in terms of practical interests. First, India hopes to enhance its international standing and particularly gain the permanent membership in the UN Security Council with the help of African countries. It realized the collective power of African countries in the UN after a defeat in its competition with Japan over the non-permanent seats on UN Security Council. When meeting with his African counterparts on Tuesday, Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj made a strong pitch for the permanent seat.

India hopes to secure the supply of energy and scarce resources through cooperation with Africa. As the fourth largest consumer of oil and petroleum products, India falls short of energy reserve and has elevated energy security to national strategy and defense demand. While importing two-thirds of its oil from the Middle East, India has long adopted a strategy to diversify energy sources, thus the importance of African countries such as Nigeria, Angola, Algeria and Sudan in oil supply is obvious. Africa's potentials for nuclear power development are also an area India has interests in.

Moreover, Africa is an important export market and investment destination for India. As one of the most rapidly developing regions, Africa has a huge market, while India is now the fastest developing emerging economy. Africa's exports to India are two times bigger than the other way around, but Africa's exports are mainly raw materials while India's are higher-value manufactured goods. As the Modi administration is promoting its "Make in India" strategy, the African market has a lot of significance for India.

In terms of security, Africa is also important for India when it comes to anti-terrorism and more importantly the security of Indian Ocean. New Delhi has always seen its security boundaries as stretching from the Strait of Malacca to the Strait of Hormuz, from the coast of Africa to Western Australia's coast. It hopes to maintain its upper hand in the Indian Ocean. India thus considers enhancing defense ties with countries bordering the Indian Ocean, which includes African states, as a priority of its diplomacy.

Soon after the India-Africa Summit, African and Chinese leaders are set to meet in early December. The close meetings have triggered speculations among Indian and Western media that China and India are competing for influence in Africa. I also heard such talk from some Indian officials, which seemed to imply that Africa used to belong to India. However, Africa belongs only to the Africans and its relations with China and India are merely based on cooperation.

It's a win-win model when independent African countries choose to cooperate with others according to possible outcomes. India has built up solid connections over time with Africa and extensive personnel networking, unparalleled by China. But over the past decades China's input in Africa has included not only materials but emotional connections. China's assistance in education and training for Africa has far exceeded that by India.

Africa's economic relations with China, India, the US and European countries and the competition between these countries have provided diverse options to facilitate Africa's development. But the competition should be benign and not cripple the stability of African countries. In this sense, it is an unshakable responsibility for China and India to jointly push forward Africa's development.

Source of documents：Global Times