India Africa summit

India Africa summit opens in New Delhi

Article published on the 2008-04-08 Latest update 2008-04-08 10:07 TU

Trade summit between India and Africa opens in New Delhi.
(Photo : AFP)

Indian and African ministers are meeting in New Delhi for the first- ever summit aimed at improving ties between the two trading blocks. Trade between India and Africa has increased to $30bn a year, but it is still almost half that of China's. Delhi recently lost a number of lucrative oil exploration contracts to Beijing.

Several African presidents will attend the summit including South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, Uganda's Yoweri Museveni, Tanzania's Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete and Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika. These leaders and the prime ministers from Ghana, Burkina Faso and Senegal will discuss ways of countering the influence of China which is building ties with African countries traditionally close to India.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh has already announced duty free preferential market access to exports from Least Developed Countries. These include 34 countries in oil-rich Africa.

Over the next two days, New Delhi is expected to announce a massive aid package as well as projects in areas such as information, technology, agriculture and education.

At the end of the summit, the delegates will issue two documents - a joint declaration and a cooperative framework that will set out the road map on the new India-Africa engagement.

The minister of state for external affairs, Anand Sharma, said the focus of the documents would be on capacity building and developing skills in Africa, agriculture, including water management and crop diversity.

India has traded with Africa for centuries. It has strongly supported independence movements in several African nations. Mahatma Ghandi's famous civil disobedience movement against British colonial rule began in South Africa.