China, India can rewrite Asia-Africa unity story

While we followed the progress of the Beijing Olympic Games torch relay earlier this month, the first India-Africa Summit was held with great fanfare on April 8-9 in India's capital, New Delhi. Heads of state from 14 African countries, including South Africa, Algeria, Uganda, Ghana and Tanzania, attended the inaugural gathering. They passed two documents of vital importance - the New Delhi Declaration and the Framework Agreement on India-Africa Cooperation - that will pave the way for the future development of India-Africa relations.

It has been said that India's decision to hold this African summit was inspired by the China-Africa Summit of 2006. Indeed it is not hard at all to see the link between the two summits. The Indian academic community and the media have made no efforts to deny the link.

Some Indian and other media organizations made no bones about comparing the New Delhi summit to the one held in Beijing two years ago. Quite a few foreign media channels gave prominence to the view that India is competing against China to influence Africa, stepping up efforts to corner more African resources and market before China does, and so on.