By Manish Chand, IANS
New Delhi : A gala multicultural concert and a multimedia show will kick off the first India-Africa summit here April 8 — an ambitious exercise that will provide a more contemporary character to ties between the two sides.
The move appears to have been inspired by a similar summit China has held with African states and is aimed at reinforcing unique ties India has with Africa so as to empower the 53-nation continent.
The multicultural song-and-dance extravaganza, choreographed on the lines of a similar show presented at the SAARC summit in New Delhi last year, is the brainchild of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR). The concert will be held on the evening of April 7 before the summit kicks off the next day.
The ICCR is planning to invite a troupe of dancers and musicians from each of the 17 countries who will be participating in the summit, an official source told IANS.
The multimedia show that will be one long ode to myriad hues of Africa and the vitality of India-Africa ties will be presented April 8 in the presence of African heads of states and government.
The summit has been structured as a three-tier interaction between senior officials (April 4), foreign ministers (April 7) and 17 heads of states/government of the two sides (April 8) participating in this exercise.
The summit will be also attended by heads of sub-regional groupings like the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS).
Algeria, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Libya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia are among the countries that will be attending the summit.
Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma invited leaders of these countries at a meeting of African Union foreign ministers at Addis Ababa earlier this week.
The summit is a precursor to more broad-based summits in the future, a top official said.
Many geopolitical and economic factors are at play in this summit.
Although Indian diplomats like to downplay Beijing’s growing clout in Africa, the idea of direct dialogue has been powered by New Delhi’s anxieties at increasing Chinese economic and energy engagement with the continent.
India has a special relationship with Africa rooted in historical and cultural linkages, points out a senior official. “We are not in any race with China. Our main interest lies in empowering Africa through manpower training and technology transfers.”
The summit will be held at a time when there is a strong possibility of the UN reform plan being revived with current members of the UN Security Council like Britain and France making a strong pitch for bringing the global body in tune with contemporary realities.
A common plan by the G4 countries comprising India, Japan, Brazil and Germany and the 53-nation African Union can energise the bid to expand the UN Security Council.
India’s help in setting up the Pan-Africa e-network that will electronically link 53 countries of Africa and bring them benefits of tele-education and tele-medicine exemplifies the new thrust of Indian diplomacy in Africa.
Besides, India has given generous lines of credit to assist the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and has written off the debt owed by the African countries under the HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) Paris Initiative.
India has also spent more than $1 billion on providing training to more than 1,000 officials from sub-Saharan Africa under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC).