ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the instrumental nature of comparative foreign policies of India and China within the charter of their pledge to multilateral outreach in Africa. This multilateral reach connotes a polygonal approach that harnesses bilateral, institutional and organisational chain of contacts together. The new mode of their multilateral contacts with the region through the African Union (AU) and multilateral forums like BRICS, BASIC and India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) reinforces this presence. This multilateral bonding provides the two countries various intercontinental benefits, strategic reach, opportunities for power positioning, posturing as well as distinctions that a merely bilateral approach does not necessarily provide. There is a pervasive but subtle struggle for presence and partnership emerging between the two countries in Africa. This may not be a directly competitive one; nonetheless, their drive to institutionalise the African reach is allied to their power-building networks and cross-continental alliance politics. South Africa is a conspicuous example in this respect. Both China and India are driving to entice South Africa into their penumbra through a multilateral chain of contacts to establish their respective greater presence in the African continent. The Chinese approach has been more generous in funding projects and establishing strong economic linkages through ‘aid and donor’ approach; whereas the Indian approach is based more on a ‘populist’, ‘third world’, ‘developing world’ factor. Recent literature on major powers’ approaches to the African continent suggests that both India and China have emerged as the two most influential powers in Africa in the recent past. Some argue that the crux of this growing presence is the robust trade and economic contacts that both have employed (Broadman 2008; Chen Deming 2012; Meeking 2013). Others see the merits of the softpower approach and see the two countries as influential actors of contemporary ‘donors and partners’ strategy (Naidu and Heyley 2008; Meeking 2013; Vickers 2013). The reach of these two Asian powers has been so pervasive in Africa in recent times that experts and scholars have been prompted to perceive a possible ‘Asian’ approach, distinct from the erstwhile colonial or Western approach towards Africa (see Iwata 2012). Unlike the traditional Western ‘donors or partners’ approach that most countries have employed towards Africa, India’s and China’s approaches to the
continent have evolved from a combination of history and contemporary dynamics. They combine the established ‘Afro-Asian’ multilateral bonding with the contemporary multilateral realities of economics, politics and diplomatic nuances and strategies. These involve a set of principles that combine a populist measure or approach, traditional ‘donors and partners’ contact and, most notably, a reliable international conglomerate that is multilateral and multipolar in nature, which is important both to Africa and to India and China as well. This multiple mode of reaching out to Africa helps the two countries enlarge their own presence in the continent while checking the other’s influence. A comparative analysis of India’s and China’s contemporary approach to Africa would bear out this assertion.
