India takes new look at Africa

The end of the Cold War witnessed India's traditional reason for engaging Africa eroding completely.

That was because by the early 1990s, with the independence of Namibia and the transfer of power in South Africa, India's traditional stance of emotional and political solidarity with Africans against colonialism and racialism had outlived its relevance.

India had also lost its long-standing ally - the Soviet Union - and refashioning its foreign policy was to take a long time.