- Prelims: Current events of international importance, G20, Global south, BRICS, ECOWAS, etc.
- Mains GS Paper II & III: Bilateral, regional and global grouping and agreements involving India or affecting India’s interests.
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
- Africa is flagging its demands nowadays on multilateral fora such as BRICS, the G-20 and the United Nations General Assembly.
- The 15th BRICS summit is the first in-person meet since 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa.
INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE
Context
G20:
- The G20 is an informal group:19 countries and the European Union, with representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
- The G20 Presidency rotates annually: according to a system that ensures a regional balance over time.
- For the selection of the presidency: 19 countries are divided into 5 groups, each having no more than 4 countries.
- The presidency rotates between each group.
- Every year the G20 selects a country from another group to be president.
- India is in Group 2 which also has Russia, South Africa, and Turkey.
- The G20 does not have a permanent secretariat or Headquarters.
BRICS:
Background of BRICS formation:
- Jim O’Neil’s conception of BRIC, a grouping of four emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, and China).
- Two of its components joined hands with South Africa to form IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) in 2003.
- China played a trump card, and bought South Africa into BRIC, thus turning it into BRICS.
- IBSA has been unable to hold its summit since 2011.
- BRICS has held 14 summits in the past 13 years.
Challenges and disruptors:
- Existential challenges such as
- misgovernance
- unplanned development
- the dominance of ruling tribes
- New disruptors such as
- the Islamic terror
- inter-tribal scrimmage
- changing climate
- runaway food inflation
- urbanization
- Youth unemployment
- Military interventions by France, the United States and Russia’s Wagner Group to curb the militancy have frequently become part of the problem.
- keeping dictatorships in power to protect their economic interests, such as
- uranium in Niger
- gold in the Central African Republic
- oil in Libya.
- socio-political disorder: The past decade has seen the generals coming back in Egypt, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
- The armed forces in Libya and Sudan have split and are vying for supremacy.
- Most military establishments in these countries are relatively weak and incapable of defeating the Islamists and tribalists
- The top brass do not lack political ambitions.
- When the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) recently threatened to act militarily against Niger’s junta
- Member-States, Mali and Burkina Faso — both run by military governments — opposed the idea.
- Similarly, Sudan’s warring generals have defied calls for a ceasefire.
- keeping dictatorships in power to protect their economic interests, such as
International support:
- China has been Africa’s largest trading partner and investor, but a slowing economy and trade have reduced its appetite for Africa’s commodities.
- China’s Belt and Roads Initiative has raised the debts of some African countries to unsustainable levels
- causing them to cede control of some of their assets to China.
- Russia previously promoted the Wagner Group in Africa as a shortcut for security
- But after the militia’s mutiny against the Kremlin and the death of its chief, the situation is unclear.
- France, the United Kingdom and other colonial powers as well as the United States have continued to exploit mineral wealth in Africa
- Their economic downturn has limited their outreach.
- Europe’s main concern is limited to stopping illegal migration from African shores.
Developments around Africa:
- The 15th BRICS summit took place in South Africa on August 23-24 with the theme “BRICS and Africa
- The 18th G-20 Summit hosted by India where several issues of the “global south” with Africa as a focus would come up.
- The annual session of the United Nations General Assembly would also get underway — once again the Black continent’s travails would prick the world’s conscience.
India’s ties:
- India’s ties with Africa are deep, diverse and harmonious: They range from Mahatma Gandhi’s satyagraha against the apartheid to the UN peacekeeping role.
- India-Africa trade reached $98 billion in 2022-23.
- India’s investment and other socio-economic engagements with Africa remain robust, especially in such sectors as
- education
- health care
- telecom, IT
- appropriate technology
- India was the fifth largest investor in Africa and has extended over $12 billion in concessional loans.
- India has completed 197 projects and has provided 42,000 scholarships since 2015.
- Approximately three million people of Indian origin live in Africa, many for centuries.
- They are Africa’s largest non-native ethnicity.
Way Forward
- India is well placed to leverage its comprehensive profile with Africa to help the continent either bilaterally or through these multilateral forums.
- India’s hosting of the G-20 Summit will present it with a historic opportunity to up the ante.
- It could consult like-minded G-20 partners and multilateral institutions for a comprehensive semi-permanent platform
- To resolve the stalemated security and socio-economic situations in several parts of Africa.
- India should deliver political stability and economic development by combining peacekeeping with socio-political institution building.
- India can offer force multipliers such as targeted investments and transfer of relevant and appropriate Indian innovations, such as
- JAM trinity (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile)
- DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer)
- UPI (Unified Payments Interface)
- Aspirational Districts Programme.
- By offering a more participative and less exploitative alternative, India can make the India-Africa ecosystem an exemplary win-win paradigm for the 21st century.
QUESTION FOR PRACTICE
The long sustained image of India as a leader of the oppressed and marginalized nations has disappeared on account of its new found role in the emerging global order.’ Elaborate(UPSC 2019) (200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)
