With China expanding economic and strategic influence in Africa, India and Japan have decided to jointly develop Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the resource-rich continent. The two ‘friendly’ nations recently prepared a blueprint for developing SEZs in different African nations in order to counter the Asian giant’s growing influence there.
Japanese Ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu, who signed a MoU with Joint Secretary of the Indian government’s Department of Economic Affairs S Selvakumar in New Delhi in March, recently said that the first SEZ would be built near Mombasa port in Kenya. Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi a couple of days ago, the envoy said that around 10 Indian companies were interested in developing the SEZ with Japanese assistance.

Hiramatsu and Selvakumar

“Indian companies have large presence in the region and Japanese companies have advanced technologies, both of them coming together for Africa is a win-win situation for both countries,” said Hiramatsu. He stressed that Mombasa port is strategically very important as it is considered as the gateway to the East African market. So, according to the Japanese official, it will be easier for the Indian firms to influence the African market from this port.
Meanwhile, New Delhi is eager to co-operate with Tokyo for the development of African countries. A senior External Affairs Ministry official said that it has become important to do something for “economic prosperity and capacity building and development of the countries in the continent”.

China’s relations with neighbours

Interestingly, India and Japan finalised the blueprint a month after China opened its new military base in Djibouti (first in the region). The development has raised concerns in many countries mainly because of Beijing’s strategic intent in the content. And India and Japan are no exception.
For the last eight years, India has been financing big infrastructure projects in Africa. Japan, too, is trying hard to counter China’s infrastructure development spree in different parts of the world with the help of “quality infrastructure strategy”. While Beijing plans to pump in USD 1 trillion as part of its ‘One Road One Belt’ initiative into Africa, the volume of Japan’s Overseas Development Assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa was JPY 226 billion in 2015.

Although China plays a leading role in global geopolitics, it has sharp differences with almost all its neighbours. However, their resistance to Beijing’s aggressive claims is increasingly weakening as its investments grow in the region. Mongolia, Vietnam and India are among a handful critical of its strong-arm tactics, along with Japan and Taiwan.
A recent ASEAN meeting, where the bloc was expected to push for a non-aggression pact with China, saw a tepid response to the proposal.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das