India Raises Profile as Security Partner for Africa

ADF STAFF

Over the last decade, India has emerged as a key security partner for nations across Africa with particular emphasis on terrorism, piracy and maritime domain awareness.

Since 2015, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his country’s Security and Growth for All in the Region policy, India has hosted hundreds of African leaders. Modi has sent cabinet ministers to every African country as part of the plan for building relations on the continent. Indian troops have also played key roles in United Nations peacekeeping missions in Africa.

India hosted its first India-Africa Army Chiefs Conclave in March 2023 along with its second Africa-India Field Training Exercise in Pune. Indian and African navies have taken part in 47 rounds of the Maritime Partnership Exercise in the western Indian Ocean.

“India’s collaboration with African navies extends beyond joint patrols to include extensive training and capacity-building initiatives,” Aritra Banerjee wrote recently for Military Africa.

India has helped establish defense academies in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania, along with a military war game center in Uganda. Trainers have visited Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

India has established monitoring stations in northern Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles to track maritime activity and boost security in the western Indian Ocean, including the Gulf of Aden and the Mozambique Channel. Africa’s eastern coastal waters lie within India’s security perimeter, which led India to deepen its relations with Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania as well.

Information collected from India’s African listening posts is processed at its Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region and, from there, shared with more than 60 partner nations and international organizations. India has invited its African partners to post their own officers at the regional center.

While Africa’s Indian Ocean coast plays a key role in African-Indian security relations, India has also extended its security reach to the Gulf of Guinea — a crucial shipping zone historically plagued by piracy. In the Gulf of Guinea, India has helped develop Air Force institutions in Ghana and a naval war college in Nigeria.

Since 2008, Indian Navy ships have escorted commercial shipping through both the Gulf of Guinea and the Gulf of Aden at the eastern end of the Red Sea.

India’s relationship with some African nations extends deep into their past as British colonies. Africa is home to more than 3 million people of Indian descent who came to the continent during that period. Modern relations have their roots in the military training facility India opened in Ethiopia in 1956.

In the decades since, India as focused much of its effort in Africa on helping its partners develop self-sufficiency when it comes to maintaining equipment, dock facilities, boats, weapons, and aircraft. India provides its African partners with armored vehicles, combat helicopters and offshore patrol craft, along with other equipment.

Mauritius, Mozambique and Seychelles are among the top purchasers of Indian-made armaments.

“Given the compatibility between India and Africa’s military traditions, strategic doctrines, command structures and training protocols, defense and security cooperation are essential components of cooperation among all participants,” analyst Faareha Usmani wrote in 2023 for the Indian Council for World Affairs.

In March, Ethiopia and India announced a new military training and defense development agreement. Overall, India’s work to enhance African military capacities is designed to benefit all countries sharing the western Indian Ocean, say observers.

“These efforts have enhanced the operational capabilities of African navies, enabling them to better address their maritime security challenges,” Banerjee wrote.