India has always stood with Africa even if it formally announced its Africa policy only during the visit of PM Modi to Uganda in 2018, writes Amb Anil Trigunayat
The African Union and several regional organisations have attempted to discourage military coup d’etat that was quite frequent a couple of decades ago.
But Mali and several others have proved them otherwise. Likewise, smooth transition of democratic power, even if not unique to Africa after former US President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the election results, has not always been easy.
Again, besides their politico-economic agony Africans have also been afflicted by the Corona pandemic. This has been worsened due to lack of health infrastructure, capacity, expertise and non-availability of vaccines despite COVAX and other commitments.
No wonder South African President Ramaphosa recently lamented the vaccine inequity calling it “Vaccine Apartheid” in Paris. The G7 countries have committed a billion doses but time is of essence.
South Africa and India were the first to urge the WTO and the developed world to temporarily waive the IPRs for their vaccines so that the disadvantaged people could have access to it. As such India’s ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiative was exemplary irrespective of domestic criticism during the second wave.