India, Africa and Latin America: Partnerships with the Global South

The Global South idea

"Global South" refers broadly to the developing countries of Africa, Latin America, Asia and Oceania. India sees itself as a voice of the Global South, a role that draws on its leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM, Belgrade 1961; Nehru, Nasser, Tito, Sukarno and Nkrumah), the Group of 77 at the UN (1964), and its anti-colonial history. India convened the Voice of the Global South Summits (virtual) in January 2023, November 2023 and August 2024. During its G20 presidency (2023), India secured permanent membership of the G20 for the African Union.

India's model of South–South cooperation emphasises:

• demand-driven partnerships with no conditions attached;
• capacity building (ITEC training since 1964);
• concessional lines of credit through the EXIM Bank;
• grants;
• sharing technology and digital public infrastructure.

India and Africa: historical bonds

• Gandhi developed satyagraha in South Africa (1893–1914).
• India strongly supported decolonisation and opposed apartheid. India was among the first to impose trade sanctions on South Africa, in 1946, and raised the issue at the UN.
• The Indian diaspora in Africa numbers about 3 million, in countries such as South Africa, Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. They are descended largely from indentured labourers and traders.
• Indians were expelled from Uganda under Idi Amin in 1972.

Institutional frameworks

• India–Africa Forum Summit (IAFS): first in New Delhi in 2008, second in Addis Ababa in 2011, and a third in New Delhi in 2015 attended by all 54 African countries. A fourth summit has been delayed.
• Kampala Principles (2018): PM Modi's ten guiding principles for India–Africa engagement, set out in a speech to the Ugandan Parliament. They include partnership on African priorities, local capacity, digital revolution, agriculture, climate change, counter-terrorism, open oceans, and working together for a just world order.
• Diplomatic presence: India planned to open 18 new missions in Africa between 2018 and 2021, bringing the total to more than 40.

Areas of cooperation

• Trade and investment: India is among Africa's top trading partners. India imports crude oil (Nigeria, Angola), gold, coal, phosphates and cashews. India exports refined petroleum, pharmaceuticals, vehicles, rice and machinery. Indian companies have invested in telecoms (Airtel Africa), agriculture, mining and automobiles. The Duty-Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) scheme (2008) benefits least developed countries.
• Development partnership: lines of credit worth billions of dollars for power, rail, water and agriculture (e.g. Rwanda, Mozambique, Sudan); the Pan-African e-Network (2009) for tele-education and telemedicine, followed by e-VidyaBharti and e-AarogyaBharti (e-VBAB, 2019); scholarships; and training at Indian institutions.
• Health: India is known as the "pharmacy of the developing world" for its affordable generics, including HIV/AIDS medicines for Africa. During COVID-19 it supplied vaccines through Vaccine Maitri and COVAX.
• Defence and maritime security: anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since 2008; defence training; the Africa–India Field Training Exercise (AFINDEX); and AIKEYME (Africa–India Key Maritime Engagement, 2025), a naval exercise with East African countries. India is one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping, especially in Africa (Congo, South Sudan).
• Energy and climate: many African countries joined the International Solar Alliance. India and African countries cooperate on the Global Biofuels Alliance (launched in 2023 during India's G20 presidency).
• Food security: wheat and rice exports; agricultural cooperation.

China comparison: China's trade with Africa and its loans dwarf India's, and include large infrastructure projects under the BRI. India positions itself as offering partnerships that build local capacity, use local labour, and avoid unsustainable debt. Its smaller resources and slower project delivery, however, limit its impact.

India and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)

For a long time India gave Latin America low priority because of distance and language barriers. Engagement has grown since the 2000s.

• Trade: LAC supplies crude oil (Brazil, Mexico, Guyana), copper (Chile, Peru), gold, soybean oil (Argentina, Brazil) and lithium. India exports vehicles, pharmaceuticals, textiles and chemicals. Mexico and Brazil are among the largest trading partners.
• Lithium Triangle (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile): KABIL (Khanij Bidesh India Ltd) signed an agreement in 2024 to explore five lithium blocks in Catamarca, Argentina.
• Brazil: a Strategic Partnership since 2006. The two countries cooperate in BRICS, IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa, Brasilia Declaration 2003) and the G4 (India, Brazil, Germany and Japan, which seek permanent UNSC seats). Areas include ethanol and biofuels, defence industry cooperation, and agricultural research (including Indian-origin zebu cattle breeds such as Gir, widely used in Brazil). India's G20 presidency was followed by Brazil's in 2024.
• Trade agreements: a Preferential Trade Agreement with MERCOSUR (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay), in force since 2009, and a PTA with Chile (2007, expanded in 2017).
• Caribbean: the indentured Indian diaspora in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname and Jamaica. India–CARICOM summits (2019, 2024). PM Modi visited Guyana in 2024, the first visit by an Indian PM in more than 50 years. In July 2025 PM Modi visited Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina and Brazil (for the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro).

Challenges

• Distance and logistics: shipping and air connectivity are limited.
• Limited resources compared with China and the US.
• Delays in implementing lines of credit.
• Low awareness and language barriers (Spanish and Portuguese).
• Political instability in some countries.
• Attacks on Africans in India, which have occasionally caused diplomatic friction.

Way forward

• Hold the fourth IAFS and institutionalise a regular schedule.
• Speed up project delivery through monitoring.
• Share digital public infrastructure (UPI, Aadhaar-like identity, CoWIN) with Global South partners (India has signed agreements with several countries). India Stack is offered as a global public good.
• Expand education: an IIT Madras campus in Zanzibar, Tanzania, opened in 2023.
• Secure critical minerals, deepen pharmaceutical and agricultural cooperation, and use the diaspora as a bridge.

Practice: Mains question

*"India's engagement with Africa is driven by both solidarity and strategic interests." Discuss in the context of competition with China. (250 words)*

Analysis: India's comparative advantages

India cannot match China's financial resources, but it offers distinctive strengths:

• Affordable technology suited to developing countries: generic drugs, low-cost satellites, and digital public infrastructure such as UPI.
• Training and human capacity: hundreds of thousands of officials from partner countries have been trained under ITEC.
• Democratic and pluralist experience.
• The diaspora's commercial networks.
• Respect for local ownership.

Indian projects are often smaller but more visible, such as parliament buildings in Gambia and Uganda, power lines, and water supply schemes. Triangular cooperation combines India's experience with a third partner's finance: for example India–Japan projects in Africa and the India–US–Africa partnership in agriculture.

Maritime Africa

India's maritime interests extend to the east coast of Africa and the western Indian Ocean. They include anti-piracy operations (the Indian Navy has been deployed in the Gulf of Aden since 2008), hydrographic surveys for countries such as Mozambique and Mauritius, coastal surveillance radars, and cooperation with Madagascar, Mozambique, Kenya and Tanzania. India joined the Djibouti Code of Conduct as an observer and participates in the Indian Ocean Commission. Joint exclusive economic zone patrols with Mozambique and Seychelles are part of SAGAR.

Common prelims traps

• The African Union headquarters are in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
• Suriname, a Dutch-speaking country in South America, has a large Hindustani community, as does Guyana.
• Lusophone Africa (Mozambique, Angola) uses Portuguese, the same language as Brazil.