India-Africa Defence Dialogue | 21 Oct 2022

Why in News?

The 2^nd India-Africa Defence Dialogue (IADD) was held on the sidelines of DefExpo 2022 in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

What is India-Africa Defence Dialogue?

• Theme:
  • Adopting Strategy for Synergizing and Strengthening Defence and Security Cooperation.
• Outcome Document:
  • The Gandhinagar Declaration was adopted as an outcome document of IADD 2022.
  • It proposes to enhance cooperation in the field of training in all areas of mutual interest by:
    • increasing training slots and deputation of training teams,
    • empowerment and capability building of the defence forces of Africa,
    • participation in exercises, and
    • providing humanitarian assistance during natural disasters.
  • A volume on India–Africa Defence cooperation was also released.
• India–Africa Security Fellowship Programme:
  • IADD also encouraged further research of security issues through offer of fellowships to experts from African countries.
  • This will be done under the India–Africa Security Fellowship Programme.

How has India’s Relations with Africa been?

• Loan and Assistance:
  • India has extended concessional loans of over USD 12.3 billion to Africa.
  • In addition, India has granted USD 700 millions of grant assistance.
• Projects:
  • India has completed 197 projects so far, 65 more are currently under execution, and 81 are at the pre-execution stage.
  • In Gambia, India has constructed the National Assembly building and undertaken projects in water supply, agriculture and food processing.
  • In Zambia, India is involved in an important hydro-power project, in the erection of pre-fabricated health posts and in the supply of vehicles.
  • In Mauritius, recent notable projects include the metro express, the new Supreme Court and social housing.
  • In Namibia, a new Centre of Excellence in IT has just become operational.
  • Whereas in South Sudan, India is focusing on training and education.
• Covid - 19 Assistance:
  • 32 African countries received 150 tonnes of medical assistance from India.
    • Many of them also utilized ‘Made in India’ vaccines received directly or otherwise from India.
    • At international forums, India has worked together to press for equitable and affordable access to vaccines, including through a TRIPS waiver.
• Human Resource:
  • India had announced 50,000 scholarships during India–Africa Forum Summit (IAFS)-III in 2015, out of which more than 32,000 scholarship slots have already been utilized.
  • To provide high quality virtual education and medical services to partners, the e-VidyaBharti and e-ArogyaBharti networks were launched in 2019 for tele-education and tele-medicine respectively.
• Help & Relief Assistance:
  • Operation Sahayata to assist cyclone IDAI-hit Mozambique in 2019, Operation Vanilla to provide relief to flood victims in Madagascar in January 2020, the support to Mauritius in containing the oil spill due to the grounding of ship Wakashio.
• Energy:
  • The International Solar Alliance is a notable platform that has promoted the rapid development of clean energy technologies.
  • This has been followed by the ‘One Sun One World One Grid’ initiative to further promote solar and renewable energy.
  • In recent years, clean and green energy have been increasingly prominent in India’s development programmes in Africa as also in third country collaborations.
• Trade and Economics:
  • India’s bilateral trade with Africa has now reached USD 89.5 billion in 2021-22 compared with USD 56 bn the previous year.
  • With cumulative investments at USD 73.9 billion from 1996-2021, India is among the top five investors in Africa.
  • Through the Duty-Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) Scheme that extends duty free access to 98.2% of India’s total tariff lines, India has opened its market to African countries.
  • So far 33 Least Developed Countries (LDC) African nations have been entitled to get benefits under this scheme.

Source: PIB