India's High Commissioner to Kenya, Rahul Chhabra, resident in Nairobi, is concurrently accredited to Somalia, also as ambassador. Not many embassies are located in Mogadishu - about a dozen, including China, Turkey and Iran -  but the nation with Africa's largest coastline, of 3,333 km has, over years, became a byword for all that is wrong with the continent - piracy, sectarian conflict, terrorism, drought, malnutrition and political instability.
 
Chhabra, accompanied by his wife, had to stay in a 'container' caravan on their maiden visit to Mogadishu, as city hotels were deemed unsafe and were tutored to deal with sudden eruptions of violence and bomb attacks that are not uncommon. The country of nearly 15 million in the Horn of Africa has become a free for all for political, tribal and ideological interests of myriad extremist persuasions. Somalia is a dangerous place for anyone, and diplomacy can only be conducted there at high risk. Yet an increasing number of global powers are setting up base there because of its geo-economic and strategic importance. Even India has been mulling opening an embassy there, among the 18 new embassies it plans in Africa, in addition to 29 it already has in the 54-nation continent. 
 
India has had a historic relationship with Africa, forged through solidarity against colonial exploitation and support for each other's freedom struggles. Indians have long settled in Africa, particularly seafaring entrepreneurs from Gujarat, in nations as far apart as South Africa and Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique, Mauritius and Nigeria. Other than South Africa, Indians have had diverse business interests in eastern Africa, with Indian settlers in Kenya, many into their fourth generation, seeking recognition as the country's 44th tribe, even while keeping their customs and culture intact. 
 
With India's growing political and strategic interest in the continent, and inclination to leverage its diaspora as an instrument of soft power, it’s natural for New Delhi to establish a beachhead in Somalia, that straddles the Horn of Africa,  the source of the Nile and a gate to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, through which tens of thousands of vessels pass through Somali waters every year in what is one of the world’s busiest sea-trading lanes. "The area has always been a magnet for international powers because of the sea traffic going by, major ports in the area, tremendous nearby riches, weapons trading, crossing points for people and merchandise and the dangers of piracy," noted The Arab Weekly.
 
Since the Narendra Modi government took office in 2014, there has been a rise in high level visits to Africa, especially since the third India Africa Forum Summit in 2015. President Ramnath Kovind’s first visit abroad was to Ethiopia and Djibouti, and then Madagascar and Mauritius, indicating the importance India was according to the eastern seaboard of the continent. A week-long visit followed, in July 2019, to Benin, Guinea Conakry and Gambia, countries few Indians have heard about or relate to, but which India is keen to woo and engage in its quest for greater influence, as Africa, becomes the world's latest energy and mineral destination.
 
Modi himself has visited Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, Seychelles and Mauritius in three visits, as a reflection of the "top priority" his government accords to Africa, with which India wants a transparent, sustainable "partnership," based on the "principle of equality".  Visits to Morocco and Egypt are among those in the pipeline. 
 
Africa is on the verge of a potentially transformational free-trade pact that will open up a USD3.4 trillion economic zone of 1.3 billion people - the same as India’s population - to the world. The potentially monumental African free-trade pact was stitched together over a year of diplomatic effort to little fanfare elsewhere in the world, as the Washington Post recently noted. The deal is seen by some experts as a game-changer,  that promises to usher in a more integrated Africa that would make the region a “food basket to the rest of the world,” present a “huge consumer base” attractive to global investors, stem migration flows to Europe and help bring political stability to parts of the continent.
 
For India, striving to diversify its energy and commodity basket,  an 'Act Africa' policy with a resource-rich continent seems in the pipeline, on the lines of the ‘Act East’ policy that has seen some success as New Delhi sought to integrate the growing Indian economy and security interests with countries like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, with common interests in warding off a Chinese stranglehold over the region it views as its strategic backyard. 
 
With China's very visible and expanding presence across Africa, India has been forging a different -  and more  equitable - partnership with Africa, through capacity building, human resource development and sharing of adaptable technologies that are a welcome alternative for many African countries to what is seen by many as Chinese economic neocolonialism that is imposing a huge debt burden on many of them. The huge success of the India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi on October 2015, that leaders of 53 of Africa’s 54 countries attended, showed that Africa was not only beckoning India but was ready to embrace it for a long-term partnership in mutual interest. 
 
(The author is President, Society for Policy Studies)