India, Germany push trilateral projects
Launched in 2022, these projects aim to support sustainable development goals (SDGs) in third countries in Asia, Africa and the Indo-Pacific.
New Delhi: India and Germany are planning to expand their trilateral development partnership projects, according to persons aware of the matter. Launched in 2022, these projects aim to support sustainable development goals (SDGs) in third countries in Asia, Africa and the Indo-Pacific.
So far, New Delhi and Berlin have started work with four Peru, Malawi, Cameroon and Ghana. The projects range from promoting agri-business among women in Malawi to potato production in Cameroon through agri-tech.
“The objective would be to build on individual strengths and experiences in development cooperation and offer sustainable, viable and inclusive projects to third countries in addressing development challenges and achieving SDGs and SDG-related climate targets, including through multilateral institutions where India and Germany are members, such as the International Solar Alliance (ISA),” the two sides said in a joint declaration of intent released in May 2022.
“Both participants strive to undertake capacity-building initiatives in jointly decided priority sectors and will explore co-financing and other innovative partnership models to support joint projects in third countries,” it added.
According to the persons cited above, talks are now going on between India and Germany to expand the partnership to include Mozambique. External affairs minister S Jaishankar concluded his first visit to the country in April.
India’s development diplomacy in the country was on display as the foreign minister rode a train procured by Mozambique under an Indian funded line of credit (LoC) and inaugurated a bridge on the River Buzi.
“India has extended support to Mozambique in diverse areas—provision of drinking water, improving power generation and distribution, improving agricultural productivity, rehabilitation of irrigation infrastructure, creation of an Information Technology park, construction of an assembly plant for solar cells, rehabilitation of road networks, construction of housing units, railway equipment,” according to the Indian embassy in Mozambique.
In 2010, India extended a $500 million line of credit to Mozambique as part of development cooperation.
Education, emergency humanitarian relief and medical supplies also form a part of the bilateral development partnership. The expansion of the trilateral development cooperation platform points to some encouraging signs for India’s development diplomacy ambitions.
Some previous efforts to design trilateral partnerships for development had stalled. This was most notably the case with the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC) which envisaged cooperation with Japan in the African continent. India has also launched a trilateral development cooperation platform with the UK. India, France and UAE have also established a minilateral grouping which aims, among other things, to promote cooperation on food security, the circular economy and climate change related issues like desertification.
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First Published:22 May 2023, 11:12 PM IST
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