President Ram Nath Kovind on soft power trip to boost Africa ties

Kovind’s recent visit to Mauritius and Madagascar was part of Modi government’s bid to ramp up ties with African countries to counter China.    
President Ram Nath Kovind and Savita Kovind with Madagascar President Hery Rajaonarimampianina and his wife  | PTI
President Ram Nath Kovind and Savita Kovind with Madagascar President Hery Rajaonarimampianina and his wife | PTI

NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind’s recent trip to Mauritius and Madagascar is part of New Delhi’s attempt to re-engage with Africa. Both these African nations lie in the Indian Ocean, where the growing Chinese naval presence has left New Delhi rattled.

After assuming office last year, President Kovind’s first trips abroad were to Ethiopia and Djibouti, where China has a naval base that also hosts an expeditionary force of the People’s Liberation Army.
President Kovind was invited as the chief guest for the 50th anniversary of the independence of Mauritius, where more than 70 per cent of the population is of Indian origin.  

During the visit, he inaugurated the new World Hindi Secretariat building constructed with Indian assistance, launched a project to supply e-tablets to primary school children across Mauritius and laid the foundation stone for an ENT Hospital and Social Housing Project, funded by a Special Economic Package offered New Delhi.

From there he flew to Madagascar, becoming the first Indian leader to visit the huge island nation off the southeast coast of Africa. After the delegation-level talks, he was conferred the Grand Cross of the Second Class, the country’s highest honour for non-citizens, by Prime Minister Olivier Solonandrasan. On Thursday, he interacted with members of the India-Madagascar Business Forum, and spoke at the University of Antananarivo before returning to New Delhi.

Trade and cultural ties between the Indian subcontinent and Africa pre-date Christ. More than three million people of Indian origin, or almost 13 per cent of the Indian diaspora, live in some 46 African nations.
Despite ancient ties and a large Indian diaspora, Africa was never on top of New Delhi’s foreign policy agenda. It was only in the last decade that New Delhi woke up to the strategic and economic significance of the continent, and launched a series of initiatives to revive the relationship.

Realising that it could not match the economic largesse of China — which has been wooing African nations aggressively to get access to their oil and mineral resources as well as diplomatic leverage — India banked on its soft power.

Spelling out his vision of the relationship at the inauguration of annual meeting of the African Development Bank in Gujarat in May last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said: “…I have made Africa a top priority for India’s foreign and economic policy. The year 2015 was a watershed. The third India Africa Summit held that year was attended by all 54 African countries having diplomatic relations with India.

“Since 2015, I have visited six African countries — South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Mauritius and Seychelles. Our President has visited three countries — Namibia, Ghana and Ivory Coast. The Vice-President visited seven countries — Morocco, Tunisia, Nigeria, Mali, Algeria, Rwanda and Uganda.”

During the inaugural conference of the International Solar Alliance in New Delhi earlier this week, Modi made it point to hold bilateral talks with over a dozen African leaders.

However, a senior Indian diplomat noted that despite this outreach, “the point that needs to be made is that India woke up a bit late to the possibilities of Africa, and has a lot of catching up to do. In 2000, China-Africa trade was a mere $10bn. By 2014, that had risen more than 20-fold to $220billion. While India, too, has ramped up its investments in Africa, even optimistic figures put it around $53 billion and a large chunk of that goes to Mauritius, a tax haven. Soft power can only take you so far”.

Solar Mamas sing an inspiring tune

During PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Tanzania as part of his four-nation Africa tour in July 2016, he was introduced to 30 ‘Solar Mamas’, or solar engineers from six African countries who were trained in India and now promote solar power in their rural communities. Modi was so impressed with their work that he invited 50 ‘Solar Mamas’ to open the inaugural conference of the International Solar Alliance in New Delhi on March 11.

Part of an Indian government project at Barefoot College, Tilonia (Rajasthan), these women now make, install, repair and maintain solar kits for household lighting and power in their villages. Bare- foot has set up training colleges in Zanzibar Islands of Tanzania and some other African countries. Each year, they train over a 100 ‘Solar Mamas’. The project has spread to Latin America and other nations.

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