India-South Africa India-South Africa 2019 | Page 32

SPECIAL REPORT
India and South Africa
Co-operation for Strategic Partnership
Prof Neeta Baporikar*
T
hroughout the twentieth century, the
list of the world’s great powers was
predictably short. The twenty-first
century will be diff erent. China and India
are emerging as economic and political
heavyweights: China holds over a trillion
dollars in hard currency reserves and India’s
high-tech sector is growing by leaps and
bounds. They are also recognised nuclear
powers and developing blue-water navies.
Such growth is opening the way for a multi-
polar era in world politics. In an attempt to
ensure that emerging countries buy into the
core tenets of the created world order, there
was an attempt to bolster their profi les in
forums ranging from IMF to the WHO, on
issues as diverse as nuclear proliferation,
monetary relations, and the environment.
These eff orts focused more on low politics
32 • India-South Africa • 2019
than on global issues. Today, the global
distribution of power is very different.
According to an estimate by Goldman Sachs
and Deutsche Bank the annual growth in
combined national income from BRICS
countries will be twice that of the G-7
countries by 2025
Legacy Perspective
Historically, the similarities between India
and South Africa are rooted in their common
experience, with colonialism or imperialism
and the social and economic inequalities that
came with it and accentuated over time. They
also share the status of emerging powers
given their growing economic importance and
the central role played by their diplomacies
in multilateral negotiations. India and South
Africa have been traditionally on the margins