New Delhi: India’s engagement with African countries focusses on quiet, government-to-government cooperation in building hospitals, training naval crews, financing small and medium enterprises, and supplying affordable vaccines, according to an article in Kenya’s Capital News.
The article terms India a reliable partner of African countries with its emphasis on co-operation with the Global South. It highlights the example of West Africa’s EBID securing a $40 million line of credit from India’s Exim Bank to fund infrastructure, energy, agriculture, and health projects in August this year.
Crucially, the capital flows through African institutions instead of tying a single government to a single foreign contractor. This is South–South cooperation at its best: African priorities, African intermediaries, Indian financing and know-how, the article states.
It also highlights that security ties follow the same principle. India focusses on training, equipping and exercising with African navies from the Gulf of Aden to the Mozambique Channel.
In June, India and South Africa signed submarine cooperation agreements, while Tanzania hosted a DefExpo 2025 featuring two dozen Indian firms offering technology suited to local needs.
In health, India’s role as a “textbook partner” is even clearer. In June, the African Union and India mapped out new initiatives in affordable medicines, digital health, and telemedicine.
Uganda’s nationwide rollout of the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine this year is powered by doses manufactured at India’s Serum Institute, moving Africa from pilots to population-level protection. Here, India delivers technology transfer, price-sensitive solutions, and systems support — the opposite of extractive practice, the article points out.
In the critical minerals sector, India is forging transparent Rare-Earth partnerships with Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, and Côte d’Ivoire, pairing deals with research, skills transfer, and downstream industrial ambitions at home. African business media have taken note: This is economic statecraft through contracts and classrooms, not coercion.
The article also highlights that as G20 president in 2024, India championed Africa’s permanent membership, answering long standing calls for global inclusion. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it supplied vaccines and medical goods to dozens of African countries in acts of solidarity.
(IANS)
