By Fakir Hassen, IANS
Cape Town : While India is committed to a deeper and mutually enriching economic partnership with South Africa, perceiving the bilateral relationship as merely being about trade and investment is “a very limited and narrow view of ourselves”, Congress party president Sonia Gandhi said here Thursday.
Addressing the Parliamentary Caucus of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), Gandhi also said globalisation presented numerous opportunities to countries such as India and South Africa, but at the same time had numerous risks which had to be managed.
“Our shared destiny goes beyond the confines of commerce and economics. Both South Africa and India occupy critical positions in the world community and by virtue of this, we will be called upon to enlarge the canvas of the dialogue between ourselves.”
The rapid economic growth that is transforming South Africa and India needs to be continued in a manner that is both equitable and sustainable, Gandhi said.
“Countries like South Africa and India have benefited significantly from globalisation, although there are regions and communities within our own borders who have been left behind and require our urgent attention,” Gandhi said as she continued a hectic schedule of engagements in a whistle-stop tour of South Africa.
She said India saw itself as a long-term partner in helping develop and unleash Africa’s vast human resource potential.
“Going beyond our bilateral confines, I am particularly glad that the welfare of Africa in its entirety is now on the agenda of the international community. We too are conscious of our responsibilities and we offer to developing nations our expertise in agriculture, in science and technology, in small-scale industry and in training and skills development.”
Gandhi cited several example of Indo-African cooperation in development and growth, singling out a revolutionary ICT project.
“The pan-African e-network project which is being set up in partnership with the African Union will make use of Indian expertise in satellite, information and communications technology in helping Africa to bridge the digital divide and take a revolutionary leap forward in tele-education and tele-medicine,” she said.
Gandhi reaffirmed India’s commitment to nuclear disarmament in terms of a blueprint that her assassinated husband Rajiv Gandhi had presented to the United Nations in 1988.
“Since then, that blueprint has won many adherents across the globe, and it remains our vision. Our commitment to comprehensive, universal nuclear disarmament is both long-standing and irrevocable. Acquiring nuclear weapons was a strategic compulsion for us, while tireless striving for their elimination is a matter of profound conviction.”
Calling for more frequent interaction between the legislatures of the two countries, Gandhi lauded the South African Parliament for having women as a third of its members, “a proportion which we are still striving to achieve in my own country”.
“Our two countries are learning, in their own different ways, how to make parliament not only a representative of our many identities, but also an effective forum for the resolution of conflicts and disputes.”
Gandhi is expected to return home Thursday evening after delivering the inaugural lecture of a series at universities across the world, planned by the Indian government to mark the centenary of the Satyagraha Campaign of non-violent protest founded by Mahatma Gandhi during his tenure in South Africa at the turn of the last century.
The Congress leader earlier also met President Thabo Mbeki and former President Nelson Mandela.