Modi’s Africa visit to set tone for India’s BRICS agenda

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Rwanda and Uganda en route to South Africa next week, where he is scheduled to attend the 10th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg from July 25 to 27, along with leaders of the other members of the bloc.

The visits are seen as part of New Delhi’s Africa outreach, one of the key aspects of India’s agenda at the Johannesburg summit, which has “BRICS in Africa: Collaboration for Inclusive Growth and Shared Prosperity in the 4th Industrial Revolution” as its official theme.

“The theme is reflective of the core priorities of each one of the BRICS members, notably to strive towards the creation of an inclusive society and global partnerships that will bring prosperity to all humankind,” B B L Madhukar, director general of New Delhi-based BRICS Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BRICS CCI) told CGTN Digital over email.

“India's focus areas would be commerce and trade as we have recently surpassed France to become the world’s sixth largest economy. India will also push fellow BRICS members to define terrorism,” he said while underlining New Delhi’s agenda at the Johannesburg summit.

Reaching out to Africa

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (fourth from right) and African heads of state and leaders pose for a group photograph during the India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi, on October 29, 2015. /VCG Photo

According to reports in the Rwandan media, Modi will arrive for a two-day state-visit in capital Kigali on July 23, just a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping lands in the country.

Xi will be in Rwanda for a two-day state visit on July 22-23, as part of his ongoing five-nation tour – including the UAE, Senegal, Rwanda, South Africa and Mauritius – from July 19 to 27 that will also see him attend the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg.

"At the end of this month, in Rwanda, we have very important visits by the prime minister of India and the president of China,” Rwanda’s Senate President Bernard Makuza said, emphasizing that Rwanda is seeking to enhance ties with both the Asian countries.

“We are for international relations based on mutual interest,” he said, adding the Indian prime minister’s visit will be a “big boost” for bilateral ties..

Modi is scheduled to fly to the Ugandan capital Kampala on July 24 where he will address the national parliament a day later, Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper reported on Tuesday. While Uganda has previously hosted Indian prime ministers in 1997 and 2007, Modi’s visit to Rwanda will be the first for an Indian prime minister.

India is Africa’s fourth-largest trading partner, behind the European Union, US and China. According to the latest figures from India's Department of Commerce, total trade between India and Africa increased almost five-fold between 2005-06 and 2015-16, and stood at 52 billion US dollars in March 2016-17.

India-Africa trade recorded its peak in 2012-13 reaching a figure of 68.5 billion US dollars and has since cooled off a bit. However, India is targeting a three-fold increase in the two-way trade with Africa in the next five years.

According to 2016-17 figures, South Africa remains India’s leading export destination in Africa with total exports valued at 3.5 billion US dollars accounting for around 15.4 percent of India’s total exports to Africa.

In recent years, India has also become one of the largest investors in Africa, Madhukar pointed out. “Indian investors have been participating in diverse sectors including telecommunications, energy, computer services, power, automobile, infrastructure, etc. in Africa. This has led to trade between both the sides witness an exponential growth over the past 15 years,” the BRICS CCI director general said.

Citing figures from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Madhukar said that approved cumulative investments from India to Africa amounted to 54 billion US dollars between the 10-year period of April 1996 and March 2016. “Among the African nations, Mauritius is the leading country in terms of receiving highest FDI (foreign direct investment) inflows [from India], followed by Mozambique, Sudan, Egypt and South Africa,” he added.

Multilaterism, counter-terrorism and global governance

India's former envoy to South Africa Rajeev Bhatia, writing for the Mumbai-based Gateway House thinktank, stressed that the 10th BRICS summit comes in the wake of one favourable development: three of the grouping's key members – China, Russia and India – enjoy closer understanding today than they did before the last summit at Xiamen.

VCG Photo

"This positive outcome stems from the successful informal summits the prime minister of India held with the presidents of China and Russia in Wuhan and Sochi respectively in May this year," wrote Bhatia, who is also a distinguished fellow at Gateway House.

The former Indian diplomat felt that "better India-China relations and a shared perception by the three powers that the stability of the global system must be safeguarded, may help the host, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, navigate summit deliberations in a positive direction."

Other key areas that India continues to promote at the platform are multilateralism and intra-BRICS cooperation while strongly advocating for a joint action against cross-border terrorism.

“Building a multipolar world has been one of the central themes of India’s foreign policy. For nearly a decade, BRICS has been the main forum for the pursuit of that objective,” Madhukar told CGTN.

At the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting last month, India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj counted multilateralism, international trade, and a rules-based world among New Delhi’s top priorities.

From left: Russia's Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov, India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Lindiwe Sisulu, China's Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi and Brazil's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcos Galvao hold hands after concluding a BRICS foreign affairs ministers' meeting at the OR Tambo Building in Pretoria on June 4, 2018. /VCG Photo

Stressing the importance of strengthening intra-BRICS cooperation, Swaraj said: “There exists considerable potential for BRICS to take our cooperation to an even higher level. We appreciate initiatives being undertaken during South Africa’s Chairmanship. We are supportive to the theme and priorities listed by South Africa for 2018.”

She reiterated Modi’s call for developing a BRICS counter-terrorism strategy for joint action with a focus on money laundering, terrorist-finance, cyber-space and de-radicalization as priorities.

Madhukar expressed hope that BRICS will eventually have a significant impact on global governance. “It (global governance) is possible through the joint efforts of all the BRICS members,” he said.

“They may draw up rules of the game relating to cyber security, food and energy security, disaster management and tackling social and economic issues. BRICS and associated friendly countries can certainly mediate in areas of conflict and ensure global peace owing to their combined strength,” he opined.

Another vital aspect of BRICS is emerging financial structure. “With the passage of time, even other developing nations led by BRICS may play a key role in the functioning of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank,” Madhukar hoped.

Boosting ties with China

Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, on April 28, 2018. /VCGXinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Madhukar emphasized that BRICS offers an opportunity for India to significantly boost ties with other member nations, particularly China.

“Engaging China has been an important component of India’s foreign policy in recent years, considering that cooperating and negotiations with China is imperative to clear any pending mistrust between the two countries,” he remarked.

“BRICS gives India a great platform to work more closely with China and cope with the new strategic warmth between Moscow and Beijing – making BRICS less about ideological posturing, [and] more about repositioning India in changing great power equations,” he reasoned.

Madhukar felt that India should seek to strengthen the existing multilateral and bilateral ties with China and “work towards increasing competitiveness and economic growth of the BRICS economies so that the partnership remains intact.”

“Given that the world is beset with political challenges, safety related challenges and economic challenges, forums like BRICS could help in brining countries together and coordinating on challenges confronting the world economy,” Madhukar said.

Praising the BRICS Plus mechanism initiated by China at last year’s summit in Xiamen as a “definite milestone”, he said the idea needs to be further expanded with the formation of a “BRICS Friends Club,” which may “enable the regional powers to cooperate with BRICS on economic, financial and political issues

[Cover: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves before boarding an aircraft flying to Qingdao in China to attend the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, in New Delhi, on June 9, 2018. /VCG Photo]

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