India Africa Summit extremely important for charting new course of cooperation: South African Envoy

New Delhi, April 23 South Africa's High Commissioner to India Anil Sooklal said that the upcoming India-Africa Summit is "extremely important" for charting a new course of cooperation between both sides.

It will be a "coming of age" event for drawing a new blueprint for India-Africa cooperation, the envoy said.

In an interview with IANS, Sooklal stated that India and Africa will discuss critical areas of cooperation, including global governance, reform of the multilateral system, including the United Nations, the UNSC, the Bretton Woods institutions, and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), while addressing common security challenges like terrorism, in the summit scheduled to be held in May. He recalled that India was among the first countries to help Africa during the Covid challenge.

"I think this is a very important coming together of India and Africa. Of course, there have been strong historical ties between the African continent and India that go back many, many centuries. But, in more recent times, I think the inauguration of the first India-Africa Forum Summit in 2008, followed by the second in 2011 and the third in 2015, where I was involved as part of South Africa's delegation, has set a template for India-Africa cooperation. And I think the forthcoming summit is perhaps going to be extremely important in chartering a new course of cooperation between the African continent and India. We are excited that this summit is taking place. Of course, there's been a decade that has passed since the last, for various reasons, Covid being one of them, that prevented the summit from taking place earlier. But I think both India and the African continent are in a totally different space than we were over a decade ago. India has grown substantially, one of the fastest growing economies in the world, the fastest growing major economy."

"The African continent is now also growing at an accelerated rate. We have common challenges, our developmental challenges. We have common aspirations in terms of what we'd like to see for our countries on the continent and our people, and the same with India. I think there are many areas that will be focused on at the summit, building on the previous summit, I think you'll see continuity in critical areas of cooperation, looking at areas of global governance, reform of the multilateral system, including the United Nations, the Security Council, the Bretton Woods institutions, and the WTO within the multilateral fold, addressing our common security challenges, including issues of terrorism that we also experience on the African continent, but working also on the development initiatives, especially in a number of key areas where India and Africa has worked closely over the past decade. This would include education and skills development."

"At the last summit, India put on the table 50,000 scholarships for Africa and to date, over 85,000 scholarships and skills training programmes have been provided to the African continent. And I think this summit will build on that because I believe like we are seeing in the case of India, education and skills are critical for the development of any country and this is an area where I believe India can be a very critical partner in helping us build skills, in helping us educate our very youthful population to address the vast opportunities that are there for the African continent," he added.

He hailed India's growth in the pharmaceutical sector, health equipment and mentioned that Africa has a weak health infrastructure. He noted that industrialisation is key to Africa's development and stated that India can be a major partner for the African continent in this domain. He stated that India can work with Africa in critical sectors, as the African continent is rich in mineral resources.

"The health sector... India is a leader in terms of the global pharmaceutical sector, health equipment, and Africa has a very weak health infrastructure, as we saw during Covid. India was one of the first countries to come to Africa's assistance during the Covid challenge, and I believe this is an area where we can find synergy, where we can work together for mutual benefit, helping Africa in terms of its health and pharmaceutical sectors, of course, agriculture. Agriculture is one of the strengths of India, and Africa possesses 60 per cent of global arable land, yet Africa is a net food-importing continent. How can we use new technologies like India has done to empower our farmers to bring more into the mainstream and modernise agriculture for the benefit of the continent to ensure food security for our people, and also become a major part of our respective economies? Every agricultural sector holds tremendous promise in terms of growing our economies. In terms of new technologies, we have seen what DPI has done for India in terms of empowering the poor and lifting over 250 million people out of abject poverty. This is a challenge we still face on the African continent."

"So, I believe this is an area where we can also work with India in empowering the African countries. Africa has been unfortunate because we didn't really ride on the third industrial revolution. We must start by and large on that. Industrialisation is a key to Africa's development, but I believe today, with new technologies, Africa can leapfrog into the future, and India can be a major partner for us in this domain. So, these are some of the critical sectors. Africa is a very rich country in terms of minerals and mineral resources, especially now with such a major focus on critical minerals for new technologies."

"I believe India can also work with Africa in terms of harnessing the vast potential we have not only in traditional minerals, but in critical minerals, working together for the mutual benefit of both of us. Infrastructure, that's another area where India, you see everywhere you go, there's infrastructure built, ports, airports, rail, roadways and digital infrastructure. Africa is in need of this. We are also putting a great deal of focus on this area. So, I think that's another very important area where we can work in collaboration with each other going forward. So, I'm confident that all of these areas will receive the attention they warrant in strengthening this partnership between Africa and India. And I believe that this summit will also be the coming-of-age summit in drawing a new blueprint for India-Africa cooperation. I'm quite confident of that," he added.

India will host the fourth India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS-IV) on 31 May 2026 in New Delhi in collaboration with the African Union Commission. The IAFS-IV will bring together leaders from the African continent, the African Union Commission, and representatives from regional organisations to strengthen the enduring India-Africa partnership and lay out a roadmap for further expanding cooperation across diverse sectors, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

On South Africa's participation in the upcoming India-Africa Summit, the envoy said: "We are still finalising that, but I'm confident we'll have a very high-level representation with a very strong business delegation also coming for the business summit. We see this as a major opportunity in strengthening the partnership, not only at the continental and India level, but also at the bilateral level between South Africa and India."

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