Shun Summits, Redefine India–Africa Ties Through Food and Health Security

(Malancha Chakrabarty – Observer Research Foundation) Amidst an outbreak of the life-threatening disease, Ebola, the African Union and India have postponed the fourth India-Africa summit scheduled for May end this year. Given the fourth India-Africa Summit was happening after a long gap of eleven years, there was considerable excitement in policy and academic circles. While a sense of disappointment is obvious, it is important to acknowledge the uncertainty of the times we live in and adapt accordingly. Also, there is an urgent need to reflect on the relevance of high-level summits between African and external partners, known as Africa+1 summits. With the rising strategic importance of Africa, driven by resource competition and geopolitical rivalry, Africa+1 summits proliferated. The first country to establish an Africa+1 summit was France. The first France-Africa summit was held in Paris in 1973. In 1993, Japan launched the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). However, the summit model became more popular in the 2000s after both the EU and China initiated their summits in 2000. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), became the most important diplomatic engagement for Africa as it served as the main platform through which China coordinated its trade, investments, and most importantly, infrastructure projects in Africa. FOCAC’s success and China’s announcement of large financial packages for Africa drew global interest and by the second half of the 2000s, several other countries like Indonesia, Turkey, South Korea, US, and India started their own Africa summits. Currently, there are nearly 15 Africa+1 summits. – Shun Summits, Redefine India–Africa Ties Through Food and Health Security