India plays globo cop off Somali coast as Western navies play safe

India’s historical links with eastern Africa coupled with the sub continent’s thirst for Africa’s resources and the need to safeguard oil imports through the Gulf of Aden have forced her to act tough on Somali pirates, writes policy analyst PATRICK MUTAHI

Though initially opposed by the Chinese due to geo-political reasons (China being an ally of India’s arch-rival Pakistan and the country also having fought a brief war with India in 1962), Beijing has of late backtracked to support New Delhi’s candidature.

During their visits to New Delhi in January, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy not only supported the Indian case for a permanent seat in the UN. They also went a step further, calling for the reforming of the other international institutions like the World Bank and the IMF as well as inducting India into the Group of 8 -- the exclusive club of the developed and highly industrialised countries.

“India is the world’s largest democracy and one of the fastest growing economies in the world… it should get its rightful place. I support changes to the World Bank, the IMF and G-8 that reflect the rise of India and Asia,” Brown said at a breakfast meting with Indian and British industry leaders in New Delhi.

“The post- (World War II) rules of the game and the post-war international institutions fit for the Cold War and a world of just 50 states, must be radically reformed to fit our world of globalisation,” he said. 

While the British Prime Minister was more emphatic for India and other developing countries finding a voice on the World Bank and IMF boards, Sarkozy took up the case of opening up G-8 to other emerging economies such as China and India. 

“How can we organise a meeting of G-8 for two and a half days and invite the G-6 for lunch on Day 3?” France, he said, will not accept this injustice.

The African Union and India traded support for the UN Security Council seats during the April 2008 Africa-Indian forum. In the final communiqué both parties agreed to work together in revitalising and enhancing the role of the General Assembly, reform and expansion of the Security Council. This included supporting each other’s bid for a permanent seat in the Security Council.

Taking into account its huge population and growing economic and political clout, India is a strong contender for the seat. That India has participated in several UN operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cyprus, Cambodia, Yemen, Somalia,  Rwanda , Namibia and the Sinai Peninsula, among others bolsters its candidature.

New Delhi’s own naval rise has also been in part a reaction to China’s own blue water naval aspirations as well as competition for Africa’s resources, especially oil.

Enter the Chinese

Beijing is increasingly becoming Africa’s most prominent economic partner while New Delhi lags behind in the competition for Africa’s resources and trade. In 2007, Sino-Africa trade significantly increased to $65.9 billion, compared to India’s $30 billion. According to Beijing’s General Administration of Customs, bilateral trade between China and Africa will exceed $100 billion in 2008, two years earlier than predicted. China had expected trade to hit that mark by 2010.

In an unprecedented move which shows growing concern over piracy, China is considering sending its navy to the Somali coast. Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei recently told the United Nations that “China is seriously considering sending naval ships to the Gulf of Aden and waters off the Somali coast for escorting operations in the near future.”

If the deployment takes place, it would be the first active deployment of Chinese warships beyond the Pacific showing Africa’s strategic importance to Beijing.

About 60 per cent of China’s imported oil comes from the Middle East, and the bulk of it passes through the Gulf of Aden along with huge shipments of raw materials out of Africa. Just last month, two Chinese ships were hijacked there, a fishing trawler and a Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship carrying wheat.

Historically, even when other superpowers have taken their navies to the high seas, China it has kept its flag down. Now China says its increasingly high-tech military forces are purely for defensive purposes. (It has traditionally kept troops close to home and out of international operations, reflecting a doctrine of non-interference in other nations’ affairs.) But, China’s growing wealth and influence have led to calls for it to take a greater role protecting world peace, even as Western nations fret about its increasing military power.