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Oct
From the 26th to the 29th of October 2015 India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government will be hosting its first ever Africa Summit. With more than 35 African governments having accepted Prime Minister Narenda Modi’s invitation to attend, IAFS 3 promises to be a grandiose affair. IAFS 3 comes at a time when Africa is preparing to host one of its other partners, China. The 6th China Africa Forum, co-chaired by South Africa will take place from the 4th – 5 th of December in Johannesburg. IAFS 3 therefore is therefore an opportunity for New Delhi not to be caught following the dragon’s tail but rather setting its own mark in its African engagement. But before the Modi’s government can start rolling out its action plan on Africa, there needs to be some form of reflection on how far India has come in its Africa Policy. One area that needs to be examined critically is the two-way trade relationship between India and African countries. In 2013, India’s former commerce and industry minister, Anand Sharma noted that the sub-continental actor hoped to increase bilateral trade between New Delhi and Africa to US$100 billion by 2015, from the US$70 billion of 2014. However, estimates project a rise to US$90 billion in 2015 thus short of the target, amidst concerns that India-Africa trade may be stagnating. At the 2014 World Economic Forum hosted in New Delhi, African leaders and Indian industrialists suggested alike that trade between the two sides is envisioned to reach US$500 billion by 2020. So how do we contextualise these trade statistics and projections?
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