Why South Africa Must Leverage Its Relations with India
来源:www.iol.co.za;发表于:2024-03-18;人气指数:57
Monday, March
18, 2024
Why South Africa Must Leverage Its
Relations with India
By Phapano Phasha
In 2023, Indian Prime Minister, Narendra
Modi, in his capacity as chair of Group of 20 nations (G20) called for the
African Union (AU) to become a member of the G20 and this status was accorded
at the G20 Summit that was held in India when the AU was granted permanent
status.
With India’s rising power and influence
in the world stage, why has South Africa not fully leveraged its BRICS
relationships to advance its national and international interests as it
navigates geo-political contradictions between the Global North and the Global
South where the US in particular still sees itself as the global hegemon?
All indicators reflect that South
Africa's regional influence is slowly eroding. It would appear that in ten
years time, its position as Africa's leading strategic power broker would have
diminished considerably. Central to this decline is South Africa's inability to
properly balance its internal contradictions, especially as they pertain to
socio-economic challenges and diplomacy.
South African foreign policy and
socio-economic realities are seemingly in conflict with each other. This
observation was well captured by the Norwegian Peace Building Resource Centre
in a paper titled, ‘The challenges and ambiguities of South Africa’s foreign
policy’. The paper, among other issues, raises political and economic concerns.
The report says that in the next few
years South Africa’s relevance on the continental and global scenes will depend
increasingly on its economic assets (power) and its political choices more than
on the nostalgic memory of its long liberation struggle. This will be linked in
particular to its capacity to solve its deep-rooted domestic problems,
particularly its acute levels of social injustice, economic insecurity which
feed common crime and social violence, which in turn hamper economic
development and tap into the common perception that the country’s international
ambitions divert scarce resource and distracts attention away from pressing
domestic social and economic problems.
The ambiguities are in many ways
connected to the South African Government having succumbed to the demands of G7
controlled International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank structural
adjustment programs as well as the pressure from the South African European
(white) oligarchs who control the structure of the Colonial and Apartheid
economy.
At the recent Raisina dialogue that was
held in New Delhi India, South Africa’s BRICS Sherpa and Ambassador at large
for Asia and BRICS in the Department of International Relations and
Cooperation, Professor Anil Sooklal, emphasised India’s geopolitical position
and diplomatic skill. Professor Sooklal elucidated on how India’s diplomatic
ingenuity made it possible to successfully host the otherwise highly fractious
recent G20 summit. As stated by Professor Sookla, both the BRICS and the West
counterparts came out of the G20 conference “happy”.
SA can surely leverage on India’s
diplomatic prowess to bolster its own domestic and global goals without giving
up its autonomy.
But, can the South African Government
balance the need to economically empower its citizens and exercise autonomy
while very much within the BRICS fold, while at the same time enjoy good
relations with the west?
South Africa certainly can. India under
President Modi is one of the best case studies of how a country can balance
both internal and external power dynamics while exploiting the interest of the
global north without compromising its own autonomy and national interests.
Furthermore, SA can exploit its relations with India while advancing its own
multidimensional interests.
There are some common elements between
SA and India that require highlighting. South Africa has the largest
concentration of people of Indian origin than any country outside of India
itself. This makes SA and India natural partners that can advance many common
agenda issues domestically and globally.
Both countries are former colonies of
the British Empire thus bearing similar socio-economic background/history. It
is therefore not a coincidence that a litany of research has been conducted
post 1994 to measure how these two countries have mitigated socio-economic
challenges that were created by the exploitative and oppressive colonial rule.
Sharing of perspectives is crucial.
For example, India’s diplomatic posture
in the Russia Ukraine war was similar to that of South Africa, however the
latter failed to capitalise its non aligned position by benefiting from cheap
crude imports from Russia unlike India which opted to buy Russia’s crude oil
and still maintained strong bilateral relations with the US and it’s G7
counterparts who also attended the Raisina dialogues in India.
Even after buying crude oil from Russia,
India as a BRICS member continues to enjoys relations with both the US and
Russia Government without significant interference from the US or open threats
of sanctions or capital flight as is the case with SA. In the context of South
Africa, the cost of living and doing business has significantly impacted South
Africa as a consequence of not optimally trading with India and Russia and
leveraging India’s diplomatic ingenuity.
However, this is not to suggest that the
SA/Russia dynamics are the same as those of India/Russia. But here are
certainly ways in which South Africa can take lessons from India’s diplomatic
prowess but also lean on its India relations to economically benefit.
The South Africa India relation can also
be leveraged in yet another way. India Today is one of the global ICT
powerhouses while South Africa does not feature at all in this league yet the
link between South Africa and India would have made it so easy for South Africa
to capitalise on India’s ICT prowess. That South Africa has failed to work with
India on this issue demonstrates the inability of both of these countries to
cooperate on such a fundamental matter, and especially South Africa’s failure
to distill its interests on the back of India’s global ICT position is
worrisome.
Silicone Valley for example is ran
largely by people of Indian descent. Prime Minister Modi has used his ten years
in office to ensure India’s youth including those in rural areas are
technologically competent which has made India the ICT labour hub of choice in
the world, and this has helped the Indian Government to move millions out of
poverty.
There are many other areas which South
Africa can learn from India just as much as India can learn from South Africa,
the list is endless but the point here is South Africa has a lot to learn from
former colonies which are on a positive trajectory and also leverage its
relations so as to alter it's economic and social circumstances to reposition
itself both domestically and internationally.
It is, however not late for South Africa
to not only learn from India’ geostrategic positioning but also significantly
lean on its historic relations. S
outh Africa can still reposition itself
as Africa’s most influential powerhouse. The country needs to view itself not
only as a commodity but as a partner to those who want to do business with it
and it can use India as a case study to navigate the complex geo-political
terrain.
Phapano Phasha is a Researcher and
Policy developer. IOL
Source: www.iol.co.za