It is with great pleasure that we bring you this special issue of Africa Trends, featuring discussions from the 4th Africa Day Roundtable, entitled “India-Africa Partnership in a Changing World”. Indeed, the continent's consolidation and integration has been progressing at a satisfactory pace in recent years. I am privileged to be part of the Africa Day roundtable discussions on “India-Africa Partnership in a Changing World”.
Apart from the opportunities to strengthen cooperation in areas of mutual interests such as tourism, medicine, governance, science and technology, space, IT, education, healthcare, mining etc., India and Africa have common interests on many international issues such as UN reforms, countering - terrorism, peacekeeping, cyber security, energy security etc.
Panel Discussion
AFRICA IN THE GLOBAL ORDER: AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE
Africa's involvement and participation in global diplomacy has increased immeasurably. socio-economic transformation of the continent, which promises a path to growth and sustainable development. l Aspiration 1: A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development. l Endeavor 2: an integrated continent; politically united and based on the ideals of pan-Africanism and the vision of an African renaissance. l Aspiration 3: An Africa of good governance, democracy, respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law. l Aspiration 4: A peaceful and secure Africa. l Aspiration 5: An Africa with a strong cultural identity, shared heritage, shared values and ethics. l Aspiration 6: A people-based Africa that builds on the potential of Africans, especially women and youth, and cares for children. l Goal 7: Africa as a strong, united, resilient and influential global player and partner. Over the past two decades, Africa's involvement and participation in global diplomacy has grown tremendously. The continent has played a key role in global trade, migration, security, climate change and terrorism. We have been successful in creating new allies and ties with emerging powers, as well as in dominating and strengthening old relationships with our West. The AU has become the most important regional body in Africa and its role in coordinating common African interests in multilateral organizations brings our choice to be more than a passive receiver. As a result, a series of ground-breaking partnerships have been launched, including intercontinental partnerships – Africa – Europe, Africa – South America and Africa – Asia; Partnerships between countries - Africa-India, Africa-Turkey, Africa-China, Africa or Japan, Africa-US through AGOA and Africa-France; Partnership in pregnancy;. Afro-Arab Partnership and Afro-Caribbean Partnership. Africa's unique physical, economic and political geography also presents many challenges to economic development and the management of shared public resources. The fact is that political borders are often not aligned with economic and natural resources and many countries on the continent are landlocked. National economies and populations are generally quite small, but cover large geographical expanses with poor connectivity infrastructure. several RECs were established within separate regions. treaties and recognized by the African Union. African Continental Free Trade Area. AfCFTA)..is intended to help significantly accelerate the growth of intra-African trade. In light of this realization, the 1980 Lagos Plan of Action for the Development of Africa, followed by the 1991 Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community (popularly known as the Abuja Treaty), proposed the establishment of Regional Economic Communities (RECs) as a basis for African integration . As a result, several RECs recognized by the African Union were established under separate regional treaties.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), one of the flagship programs and projects of the African Union Agenda 2063, is intended to help significantly accelerate the growth of intra-African trade and to use trade more effectively as a engine of growth and sustainable development, by doubling intra-African trade by 2022, strengthening Africa's common voice and policy space in global trade negotiations and establishing the financial institutions within agreed timeframes. Despite challenges such as high unemployment, according to the World Bank and Focus Economies, Africa is home to seven of the world's fifteen fastest growing economies. The AFCFTA will create a single market for goods, services and movement of persons to deepen the economic integration of the African continent.
This, together with the multipolarization of the international system and the rise of institutions such as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa), has prompted a reconceptualization and reinterpretation of the changing world order. . Africa is acutely aware that the asymmetric distribution of global political, economic and military power has remained relatively unchanged since the end of the Cold War, hence the need to forge a united front and speak with one voice if the continent is to assume its rightful place in the world order. Africa has embraced integration as a development process through the REC and the African Union, ready to work with other continents and countries like India to raise the standard of living of its people and for the global good.
AFRICA IN THE GLOBAL ORDER: INDIAN PERSPECTIVE
In recent decades, African countries have developed a proactive approach to advancing diverse positions in key international negotiations. The increasingly rapid regional integration on the continent has also encouraged African countries to develop joint approaches in international forums. In fact, African countries such as Ethiopia and Rwanda have supplanted India and Bangladesh as the two largest troop contributors to the UN's world peacekeeping efforts.
They were established primarily to strengthen African peace enforcement capabilities in various conflict zones on the continent. Over the past two decades, the AU has launched peacekeeping operations to resolve conflicts in Burundi, Sudan, Somalia, Mali, Central African Republic and Comoros. Recent studies highlight Africa's contribution to global norms related to transitional justice.5 The TRC has moved away from a punitive process as suggested in the.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who led the TRC in South Africa, attributed the success of this mechanism to the fact that it was based in the. For example, the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission in Rwanda, Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission in Kenya, Equality and Reconciliation Commission in Morocco. 3 Siphamandala Zondi, "Common Positions as African Agency in International Negotiations: An Evaluation", in William Brown and Sophie Harman (eds.), African Agency in International Politics, Taylor and Francis, London, 2013, pp.
AFRICA - INDIA PARTNERSHIP: AFRICAN PERSPECTIVES
E. Nejmeddine Lakhal, Ambassador of the Republic of Tunisia
The CFTA is both a strategic imperative for the continent and a business imperative as it will put Africa in a much better position to engage with partners globally, including India. Africa's international partners are forging closer strategic relations with the continent because they see unique opportunities for sustainable engagement. A strong believer and supporter of international and the values of solidarity between nations, Africa has forged fruitful partnership relations with Europe, Japan, the USA, China, Brazil and India to not only address the challenges facing the continent not, but also to promote sharing. values and common interests.
They focus on areas that will unlock the continent's potential: investment in people, industrialization, intra-African trade, regional integration, infrastructure development...etc. In a globally volatile political and economic environment, Africa and India need to further expand and diversify their partnership to help mitigate the impact of uncertainty and unpredictability that characterize the current world order, a partnership firmly aligned with Africa's and India's aspirations and priorities, which will build on the significant progress and progress achieved so far. A strategic, inclusive, cross-sectoral partnership between Africa and India is essential today to achieve the broader Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that guarantee long-term grassroots development.
Research and innovation have been vital engines for development in the US, in Europe, in .. Africa and India have the opportunity to supplement their economic ties with vibrant strategic orientation. Such a visionary vision would allow us to position Africa and India as indispensable actors and partners in the landscape of the 21st century and beyond. Looking ahead, the shared future looks very bright for Africa and India as our ultimate objective remains to build a sustainable strategic partnership to advance the common aspirations of the African and Indian people for a better future.
AFRICA IS A CHANGING: OPTIMISM, GROWTH AND CHANGE
Fourth, related to this is the use of grant-in-aid models and their conversion into business opportunities. Social enterprise funds are attracting traditional donors to invest money in them so that grants become business-oriented. How do we convert India's huge commitment to grant aid projects in Africa to become self-sustainable if we don't give them an impact investment style so that they become sustainable and not left behind? dependent on Indian aid.
The fifth area for strengthened cooperation is to revive engagement with the regional economic communities. From the beginning of the IAFS process, the RECs have been an integral part of the Indian engagement. The benefits of engaging in the RECs are now increasing as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has been approved by the AU and its implementation will start soon.
In any case, the AfCFTA is the result of successful negotiations on a combined free trade agreement between three RECs, namely COMESA, EAC and SADC. The real impact of the FTA will be on reducing regional barriers, which are likely to play the leading role in expanded intra-African trade. India has had a natural relationship with most RECs and needs to revive and nurture them in this new context.
Call for Contributions
The center's research focus includes understanding developments in the African region and analyzing various hotspots such as Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan and the Indian Ocean. It also focuses on bilateral, regional as well as multilateral engagements between India and the countries of Africa. The Center also endeavors to analyze India's engagement with Latin American countries, particularly in forums such as IBSA and BRICS.
In addition, the Center conducts research on the broader subject of India and the United Nations. It deals with important topics that come up in the Security Council and those that matter and.
Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses
IDSA