S Jaishankar along with ambassadors from African Union launch the logo, theme and website of 4th India Africa Forum Summit. (Photo: MEA)
New Delhi: India and the African Union have jointly agreed to postpone the fourth India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS IV), which was scheduled to be held in New Delhi from May 28 to 31. A joint statement issued by both sides attributed the decision to an “evolving health situation” in parts of Africa.
Neither the ministry of external affairs nor the African Union Commission identified the outbreak by name, though the reference is widely understood to point to the ongoing Ebola and mpox (monkeypox) epidemics on the continent.
Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) declared mpox a public health emergency of continental security in August 2024.
The World Health Organization followed with its own declaration of a public health emergency of international concern. The disease, caused by the mpox and Ebola viruses, has been spreading through Central and East Africa, with the Democratic Republic of Congo at the epicentre of a resurgent outbreak involving a new, more transmissible strain.
The decision to postpone was taken after consultations between the government of India, the chairperson of the African Union and the African Union Commission.
The joint statement said both sides emphasized the importance of ensuring “full participation and meaningful engagement” from African leaders and stakeholders, which would be compromised if the summit proceeded while a public health emergency remained in force across parts of the continent.
New dates, it said, would be “finalized through mutual consultations and communicated in due course”.
A summit that has struggled to meet
The IAFS has a troubled recent history. The last summit was held in New Delhi in October 2015. A fourth edition was first planned for 2019 but was deferred when the Ebola crisis in West Africa made broad African participation impractical.
Covid-19 then kept it on hold through 2020 and beyond. The latest postponement, the third in succession, means the summit cycle has now stretched over a decade without a convening. The previous three summits were held in New Delhi in 2008, in Addis Ababa in 2011, and again in New Delhi in 2015.
Big Cat Alliance summit also deferred
The postponement has a further casualty: the first International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) Summit, which had been scheduled for June 1 in New Delhi. It was conceived as a companion event to IAFS IV on the grounds that several African countries host big cats and are partners in global conservation efforts. With the Africa summit deferred, the IBCA summit too has been called off.
The External Affairs Ministry said new dates would be fixed after consultations with participating countries and stakeholders.
The International Big Cat Alliance was launched by India in April 2023 to protect seven big cat species – tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, cheetah, jaguar and puma, across their range states. Africa is home to four of these species and is therefore central to the alliance’s work.
Setback for India-Africa ties
The postponement is a setback for a relationship India has been working to elevate. Over the years, India has completed more than 200 development projects across Africa in sectors ranging from irrigation and power generation to manufacturing and railways.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, it supplied medical aid to 32 African countries under its Vaccine Maitri initiative, and the Serum Institute of India partnered with South Africa’s Aspen Pharma to set up. That was described as the continent’s first vaccine manufacturing facility, in Durban.
