Seeking its own place in the reformed United Nations Security Council (UNSC), India has also batted for Africa’s permanent representation in the world body. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday said that as UN celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, it was “inconceivable and incomprehensible” that India and the African continent do not have a permanent representation in the UNSC.
She added that both need to work to remove this anomaly. African countries have sought at least two seats from the continent with veto rights in the reformed UNSC.
“The (UN) Security Council continues to be representative of a world order of 1945. It is inconceivable that the Security Council today does not have any permanent representation from Africa which is the largest continent in terms of number of countries. It is also incomprehensible that India which represents almost one-sixth of world’s population and has all credentials to be a permanent member of the Security Council, is still out of it. We all need to work together to remove this anomaly and the media has an important role in this,” Swaraj said while addressing the third India-Africa Editors Forum on Sunday. The Summit will be held from October 26 to 29 in New Delhi.
While mentioning that global discussions on climate change and world trade — in the form of COP 21 (on Climate Change in Paris) and the 10th WTO Ministerial in Kenya — will culminate by December, Swaraj said that in both these meetings too, India, Africa and other developing countries will have to work together to ensure that their development agenda is not affected.
She said 2015 has been a historic year for pushing forward South-South cooperation as India and Africa celebrated the 60th Anniversary of Asian-African Conference and the 10th Anniversary of the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership at Bandung. “We believe that this 3rd Edition of the India-Africa Forum Summit is an epoch making engagement in this journey of strengthening South-South Cooperation in order to promote world peace and prosperity, while accounting for Africa’s own aspirations for growth of pan-African institutions and development programmes,” Swaraj said.
Terming Africa as a frontier of new opportunities, Swaraj maintained that India is interested in Africa’s economic growth and its integration with global economy. In this context she mentioned the trade partnership between India and Africa which has gone up 20 times, and today stands at more than $70 billion. India has a total investment of $30 to 35 billion in Africa.
“The basic approach to our relations in Africa has been one of maximising mutual benefit. We have sought to complement our needs with each other’s strengths,” she stressed. She mentioned capacity building through programmes like Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC) in which more than 25,000 scholarships have been provided, cooperation in agriculture, healthcare, security, renewable energy and emerging areas like blue economy as a key element of India-Africa relationship.
“We have managed to extend concessional credit to the tune of $7.4 billion. Most of this credit stands approved and at least half has already been disbursed. Through credit lines India has partnered Africa in creating 137 projects in 41 countries… India considers Africa as a part of its extended neighbourhood. Our partnership with Africa is unique and dates back to our civilisational contacts through ancient seafarers, traders, intellectuals and monks. Today as one of the fastest growing economies in Asia, India is attaching the utmost importance to its economic engagement with the African countries,” Swaraj said.
Earlier in the day, in his monthly Mann ki Baat radio programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said this is for the first time that an event of such a big scale is being held in India. “On Indian soil, it is for the first time that an event of such a big scale is being held. leaders of 54 African countries and Unions have been invited. Outside Africa, this is the biggest convention,” Modi said, adding relations between India and Africa are deep and the population of the two collectively forms one-third of the world populace.