India Becomes The Leading Exporter Of Weapons To African Countries: Report

In recent years, India has become a leading defence exporter. It may be able to meet Africa’s maritime, aerospace, and defence needs, as a report from the India Exim Bank says that Mauritius, Mozambique, and Seychelles will be the biggest buyers of Indian arms from 2017 to 2021.

The report, called “Reinvigorating India’s Economic Engagements with Southern Africa,” was released on November 1 in Johannesburg at the start of the CII-Exim Bank Regional Conclave on India-Southern Africa Growth Partnership.

The report called for a change from India’s current defence and security cooperation with Africa and other developing countries, which is still based on what is needed and focuses on empowering people through training, building their skills, and giving them humanitarian aid.

“Increased cooperation in aerospace, defence, maritime equipment, and ships can make Africa safer and improve its technological capacity, while also helping India reach its goal of USD 5 billion in defence exports by 2025,” the report said.

Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland, two Indian companies that make military vehicles, are already part of the network. In the future, new technologies developed in India, such as unmanned underwater systems, unmanned aerial systems, and drones, could also be exported to Africa, according to a report.

The report pointed out that India and African countries are important players in making sure that the seas around the Indian Ocean are safe and secure, especially among the nine African countries that border the Indian Ocean.

These countries are Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Seychelles, Somalia, and Seychelles.

“Because it is a major shipping route for India, the Indian Ocean remains a link between India and Africa. It is also very important for both security and trade between India and Africa. It said that India and Africa have a strong maritime relationship that is based on the cooperative framework of “SAGAR” (Security and Growth for All in the Region). It also talked about some of the work that had already been done.

“Ministry of Defence has been strengthening cooperation within the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) to do specific projects and has formalised frameworks of defence cooperation with South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Madagascar,” it said, giving some numbers.

The report says that between 2017 and 2021, 6.6% of India’s arms exports went to Mauritius in Africa, followed by Mozambique (5%) and Seychelles (5%). (2.3 per cent).

Cybersecurity was also mentioned in the report as a possible area for cooperation.

“Africa’s use of new technologies is growing as the number of mobile smart devices and social media users grows at an exponential rate. The report said that institutions like India’s “advanced cyber security infrastructure,” “National Cyber Security,” and “Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a functional nodal agency under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY),” could help.

The SIPRI International Arms Transfer Database was used to show that India was the 23rd largest exporter of weapons from 2017 to 2021.