By Vaishali Basu Sharma
Worth Noting:
- Initiatives like the International Solar Alliance and the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor have further illustrated India’s vision of global cooperation, highlighting inclusive growth and sustainable development.
- Programs like the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) initiative and India’s leadership in forums such as the International Solar Alliance highlight its commitment to sustainable and inclusive growth. India’s policy stresses capacity building, with an emphasis on shared history and culture, offering development assistance that fosters self-reliance rather than dependency.
- China, on the other hand, has pursued a more assertive and top-down approach in its engagement with the Global South, particularly through initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The Global South is beginning to find some much-needed resurgence within the larger international arena. International forums are visibly re-orienting their focus towards the developing world, albeit through different mediums and with a different intent.
Within this landscape of changing global dynamics, two Asian giants, India and China seem to be playing contrasting roles in bridging the development divide within the Global South. Both their approaches in engaging with the developing world differ significantly, particularly in terms of inclusivity, transparency, and long-term partnership strategies. While both have sought to strengthen ties with Africa, Asia, and Latin America, their strategies reflect contrasting philosophies and long-term goals.
India’s approach to the Global South has largely been rooted in principles of mutual respect, historical solidarity, and cooperation without conditionality. Since its independence, New Delhi has emphasized South-South cooperation, promoting developmental partnerships that prioritizes local needs and empower nations without imposing external models.
A prime example of this is India’s recent role in bringing the African Union (AU) into the fold of the G20 during its presidency in 2023. Such an effort underscored India’s commitment to amplifying the voices of the Global South on the global stage. Furthermore, India has consistently positioned itself as a partner in development, focusing on areas like capacity-building, education, healthcare, and sustainable growth through its South-South cooperation efforts.
Initiatives like the International Solar Alliance and the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor have further illustrated India’s vision of global cooperation, highlighting inclusive growth and sustainable development. Programs like the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) initiative and India’s leadership in forums such as the International Solar Alliance highlight its commitment to sustainable and inclusive growth. India’s policy stresses capacity building, with an emphasis on shared history and culture, offering development assistance that fosters self-reliance rather than dependency.
China, on the other hand, has pursued a more assertive and top-down approach in its engagement with the Global South, particularly through initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). While these projects have been celebrated for accelerating infrastructure development, they have often been criticized for their lack of transparency, unequal partnerships, and concerns over debt sustainability.
Several countries have voiced apprehensions over the debt trap diplomacy, where Chinese loans for infrastructure projects have saddled developing nations with unsustainable debt, eroding local sovereignty. Take Africa for instance, Beijing has provided financial loans for infrastructural projects to more than 32 African nations including Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Cameroon and Zambia in some of the recent years.
Combined together, the continent owes China a deficit of $93 billion dollars which is predicted to reach $153 billion in the coming years. Moreover, China’s strategic focus on resource extraction and market expansion in the Global South has raised questions about whether its developmental assistance is truly aimed at promoting local growth or primarily serving Beijing’s geopolitical interests. The continent of Africa has been granted excessive debt in order to gain influence over its natural resources, subsequently making China the largest bilateral creditor to African countries.
While both India and China are major players in the Global South, their approaches reflect contrasting philosophies. India’s inclusive and partnership-driven strategy stands as an extreme contrast to China’s transactional, and often self-serving model of leadership.
From India’s perspective, its global pitch for mutual cooperation has aimed to promote various agendas that include digital transformation, inclusive development, clean energy, gender equality, sustainable infrastructure and adequate reforms in the international system. Its quest to channelise its leadership for a greater push towards fulfilment of the goals that bring better development for the developing world is also meant to motivate other like-minded nations in adopting similar.
Moreover, India’s own domestic economic goals too are moving in the positive direction in response to its ambition of promoting the goals as a primary agenda in its objectives. Welfare schemes aimed towards decreasing economic and social inequalities as well as improving healthcare accessibility is playing a significant role in taking it a step closer to living onto its global commitments of paving the way for other countries to follow upon.
Thus, India’s focus on empowering the Global South through inclusive partnerships stands in stark contrast to China’s extractive and infrastructure-centric model. While China has faced criticism for exploiting the natural resources under-developed and the developing world, leaving countries burdened with debt, India has cultivated relationships rooted in mutual benefit, emphasizing long-term capacity-building and people-centric development to bring the much-needed reforms in how the world views the Global South.
The author is an analyst on geopolitical and macroeconomic issues. Email: postvaishali@gmail.com
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