INDIA-AFRICA RELATIONS: Changing Horizons.

• Author: Cozens, Peter

INDIA-AFRICA RELATIONS: Changing Horizons

Author: Rajiv Bhatia

Published by: Routledge, London, 2021, 244pp, $282.

Far from the usual preoccupations of New Zealand's diplomacy is a compendium about the relationship of two of the world's significant entities, namely the continent of Africa and the sub-continent of India, the populations of which make up nearly a third of the global total. This extraordinary book written by Indian ambassador and scholar Rajiv Bhatia examines the pre-eminent facets of an association between two areas that include the largest components of the Commonwealth. As a previous high commissioner to Kenya and then to South Africa and Lesotho and later as director-general of the Indian Council of World Affairs, the author is well qualified for this authoritative study.

Although there is some historical background, the work focuses principally on the challenges the relationship between India and Africa faced during the past two decades and the mechanisms to realise lofty ambitions of peace, security, higher standards of living and the observance of human rights for all members of these quite disparate societies.

There are several observations about the Organisation of African Unity, which was founded in May 1963 to advance the cause of post-colonial Africa. This organisation found it hard going and barely achieved a pass mark for its programmes. Its successor though, the African Union, formed in 2002 with a much broader mandate and also headquartered in Addis Ababa, included provision for India to be at the table, thus enabling and cementing a more durable and practical partnership. This is the foundation that the author seeks to explain with an acute eye for the detail of how Pan Africa is organised and administered.

In separate chapters there are descriptions of the many high-level and personal relationships between Indian and African leaders from independence to the present time. A specific chapter is devoted to how China is becoming a major influence in the affairs of Africa; it also provides insights by a canny observer about China's global strategic ambitions. Another chapter, which analyses fifteen leading African countries and their relationships with India, identifies mutually rewarding partnerships, such as a programme of up to 50,000 academic scholarships for young Africans to study in India.

Continental and regional perspectives of the multi-layered relationships between India and Africa are well explained in...