India-Africa Relations

India-Africa relations are the political, economic, security and people-to-people ties between India and the 54 countries of Africa. They rest on a shared history of fighting colonial rule and racism, and on shared goals as developing countries. Today the partnership covers trade, investment, loans for projects, training, health, defence and cooperation at global forums like the United Nations and the G20. India calls its approach a development partnership: it tries to build Africa's own capacity rather than just give aid.

Why does Africa matter to India?

Africa has about 1.4 billion people, and it is the world's youngest continent. That means a huge future market for Indian goods and services. Africa also has oil, gas, gold, coal, fertiliser minerals and critical minerals (like cobalt and lithium, needed for batteries). Several African countries face India across the Indian Ocean, so they matter for India's sea security.

Finally, African countries form the largest group of votes at the United Nations. Their support matters for India's goals, such as a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

Where did it come from?

The ties are very old.

• Ancient and medieval trade: For centuries, traders from Gujarat and the Malabar coast sailed with the monsoon winds to East Africa, trading cloth, beads and spices.
• Colonial period: Under British rule, many Indians went to East and South Africa as workers and traders. Mahatma Gandhi lived in South Africa from 1893 to 1914, and first developed satyagraha (peaceful resistance) there, fighting racial discrimination.
• Fight against apartheid: Apartheid was South Africa's system of legal racial separation. In 1946, India became the first country to cut trade ties with South Africa over its treatment of Indians, and the first to take the issue of racial discrimination in South Africa to the United Nations.
• Decolonisation and NAM: After 1947, India strongly supported African freedom movements. Many newly free African countries joined India in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM, 1961), a group of countries that stayed away from both Cold War blocs.
• Training partnership: India started the ITEC programme on 15 September 1964. Through it, officials and professionals from partner countries, many of them African, come to India for training.

How did the modern partnership grow?

After India's economic reforms of 1991, trade and investment grew fast.

• Focus Africa (2002): a Commerce Ministry programme launched on 31 March 2002 to boost exports, first to seven Sub-Saharan countries (including Ghana and Ethiopia), later widened.
• TEAM-9 (2004): the Techno-Economic Approach for Africa-India Movement, a cooperation initiative with eight West African countries, including Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.
• Duty-Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) scheme (2008): India became the first developing country to give duty-free or cheaper entry to goods from the world's Least Developed Countries (LDCs), many of them African. Since its expansion in 2014, it covers about 98.2% of India's tariff lines.
• Pan-African e-Network (2009): a project that linked Indian universities and hospitals with African countries for distance learning and telemedicine. Its successor, e-VidyaBharati and e-ArogyaBharati (e-VBAB), was launched in October 2019.

The India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS)

This is the top-level meeting between India and African leaders. It is held together with the African Union (AU), the body of all African countries.

1. IAFS-I (New Delhi, April 2008): India met leaders of 14 African countries. The AU chose who would attend using the Banjul Formula (a 2006 AU arrangement under which the AU picks a small group of leaders, including those of its regional bodies, to attend partnership summits).
2. IAFS-II (Addis Ababa, May 2011): held in Africa, again with limited attendance under the Banjul Formula.
3. IAFS-III (New Delhi, 26–30 October 2015): India dropped the Banjul Formula and invited all 54 African countries. About 40 heads of state or government attended. It remains the biggest such gathering India has hosted.
4. IAFS-IV: planned for 28–31 May 2026 in New Delhi with the AU Commission. On 21 May 2026, India and the AU postponed it because of the public health situation on the continent. New dates are to be decided by both sides.

The ten guiding principles (2018)

In July 2018, the Indian Prime Minister addressed the Parliament of Uganda in Kampala and set out ten guiding principles for India's engagement with Africa. They include keeping Africa at the top of India's priorities, building development partnership around Africa's own priorities, keeping Indian markets open to African goods, and using India's digital experience for Africa's development. Around the same time, India announced 18 new embassies in Africa, to be opened by 2021.

How does the partnership work today?

It has five main pillars:

• Development partnership: India gives Lines of Credit (LoCs) (cheap loans through the Exim Bank of India for projects such as power plants, railways, water supply and farming), plus grants. India has extended more than 190 LoCs worth over USD 10 billion to 41 African countries.
• Capacity building: ITEC training courses, scholarships, and Indian institutes set up in Africa. Thousands of African students study in India.
• Trade and investment: Two-way trade has been roughly USD 80–100 billion a year in recent years (estimates differ by source and year). India mainly buys crude oil, gold, coal and minerals from Africa, and sells refined petroleum products, medicines, vehicles and machinery. Indian companies have invested more than USD 75 billion in Africa between 1996 and 2024, making India one of Africa's top five investors. Indian generic medicines are a major part of Africa's medicine supply.
• Security and defence: Indian soldiers have served in many UN peacekeeping missions in Africa, such as in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. India holds the Africa-India Field Training Exercise (AFINDEX) (second edition in Pune, March 2023) and the India-Africa Defence Dialogue. In April 2025, India and Tanzania co-hosted the first Africa India Key Maritime Engagement (AIKEYME), India's first joint naval exercise with African countries, off Dar es Salaam.
• Global forums: During India's G20 presidency, the African Union became a permanent member of the G20 on 9 September 2023 at the New Delhi summit, on India's proposal. India often presents itself as a voice of the Global South.

India's key bilateral ties on this tour

• Ghana: In July 2025, an Indian Prime Minister visited Ghana for the first time in three decades, and ties were raised to a Comprehensive Partnership. Trade was about USD 3.1 billion in 2024-25. India is the largest buyer of Ghana's exports, mainly gold. Ghana also hosts the secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Accra.
• Côte d'Ivoire: a West African partner in the TEAM-9 initiative and a large producer of cocoa and cashew. Many Ivorian officials have trained in India under ITEC.
• Ethiopia: home to the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, and a BRICS member since 1 January 2024. In December 2025, during the Indian Prime Minister's visit, the two countries raised ties to a Strategic Partnership and signed eight agreements (including customs cooperation and UN peacekeeping training). Ethiopia gave him its highest award, the Great Honour Nishan of Ethiopia.

Commonly confused concepts

• IAFS vs FOCAC: IAFS is India's summit with Africa (first held 2008). FOCAC (Forum on China-Africa Cooperation) is China's, set up in 2000 in Beijing and held every three years. FOCAC is older and more regular.
• Banjul Formula vs all-Africa format: Under the Banjul Formula (IAFS 2008 and 2011), the AU chose a small group of countries. In 2015, India invited all 54 countries directly.
• Line of Credit vs grant: A Line of Credit is a loan that must be repaid, though at low interest. A grant is a gift that does not have to be repaid.
• ITEC vs ICCR scholarships: ITEC (run by the Ministry of External Affairs) gives short professional training to working officials. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) gives scholarships for full degree courses.
• Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC) vs Belt and Road Initiative: The AAGC is an India-Japan vision for Africa, launched in May 2017 at the African Development Bank's annual meeting in Gandhinagar. It focuses on skills, quality infrastructure and sea links. China's Belt and Road Initiative is a much larger Chinese loan-and-infrastructure programme.

Issues, criticism and the way forward

• Competition with China: China is Africa's largest trading partner and lender. India cannot match China's money, so it stresses training, local ownership and debt-safe projects.
• Slow delivery: Many Indian-funded projects under Lines of Credit have faced long delays. This hurts India's image as a reliable partner.
• Debt worries: Several African countries are in debt distress. Lending, even on easy terms, must be balanced with their ability to repay. India has supported debt restructuring for Ethiopia under the G20 framework.
• Trade imbalance in what is traded: India mainly buys raw materials from Africa. African countries want India to buy more finished goods and invest in local factories, so they can create jobs.
• Summit gap: No IAFS has been held since 2015, and IAFS-IV was postponed in 2026. Regular summits are needed to keep momentum.
• Security risks: Military coups in the Sahel region, conflict in Sudan, terrorism and sea piracy threaten Indian projects and people.
• People-to-people issues: Incidents of racism against African students in India have hurt goodwill and need firm action.
• Way forward: Experts suggest faster project delivery, more Indian investment in African manufacturing and agriculture, partnerships on critical minerals, digital public infrastructure (like India's UPI and Aadhaar models), health cooperation (medicines and vaccines), and holding IAFS-IV at the earliest.

Concepts to Know

• Global South: A term for developing and less-rich countries, mostly in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It is about shared problems, not just location on the map.
• Development partnership: Help between countries that is designed around the receiving country's own needs and choices, for example loans for a project the partner country picks, or training its people.
• Line of Credit (LoC): A loan, usually at low interest and for a long period, that India gives a partner country (through the Exim Bank of India) to pay for agreed projects, often using Indian goods and services.
• Least Developed Countries (LDCs): A UN list of the world's poorest countries, judged by income, human assets (health, education) and economic weakness.
• Apartheid: The system of legal racial separation and discrimination followed in South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s.
• Critical minerals: Minerals that are vital for modern technology (batteries, electronics, clean energy) but whose supply is limited or concentrated in a few countries.
• Exim Bank of India: The Export-Import Bank of India, a government-owned bank that funds foreign trade and India's loans to other countries.