Late Ethiopian PM helped India extend footprint in Africa

[David James]

Late Ethiopian PM helped India extend footprint in Africa

NEW DELHI: In 2008, India was shopping for votes in support for the nuclear deal in the IAEA. And, the then Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi gave it without hesitation.

As he told Indian diplomats, "India's growth is in Ethiopia's interest."

Zenawi, who died in Brussels on Tuesday, was often described as an on-again-off-again Western ally. But he was a staunch supporter of India, and in the past decade has been in the vanguard of facilitating India's footprint in Africa. Indian companies have invested about $5 billion in Ethiopia. Indian companies are some of the biggest in commercial agriculture in Ethiopia.

Indian Army is training and writing the manual for the Ethiopian army, not to speak of the number of Indian teachers, who have taught generations of Ethiopians.

Zenawi, who became PM of Ethiopia at the same time Manmohan Singh launched economic reforms in India, felt a special bond with India.

Zenawi, recalled Jairam Ramesh in a letter to Zenawi's wife, met a large delegation of Indian businessmen without aides or notes and made a persuasive case for Indian investment in Africa.

"India is more positively involved in this African problem.

First, it does not come up with a holier than thou attitude.

I know first-hand that India has worked hard for a fair referendum in Sudan. But it does not brag about it," he said.


Late Ethiopian PM helped India extend footprint in Africa - The Times of India

RIP to the son of the soil and the friend of India

 

[Capt.Popeye]

RIP Meles Zenawi.

India has been actively engaged in Ethiopia right from the time of Haile Selasie. India ran their Army training estt.s and set up the Naval Academy in Massawa then. Generations of Ethiopian servicemen and bureaucrats have trained in India. The ties run long and deep.

 

[Kamal_Jamal]

Africans don’t like Indians or take too kindly to them,

Indians should be careful in the long run or else they will pay dearly for the land acquisitions

 

[Skull and Bones]

Africans don’t like Indians or take too kindly to them,

Indians should be careful in the long run or else they will pay dearly for the land acquisitions

First of all, we don't treat them like slaves like other Asian power does. It's their land, they produce their crops, our companies just market it worldwide giving them a fair share of their hard works. We aren't making them work at gun point.

And if they don't like our presence, then they should write it to our ministry in open. We don't take advise from third party irrelevant entity.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

Africans don’t like Indians or take too kindly to them,

Indians should be careful in the long run or else they will pay dearly for the land acquisitions

Oh, my! there are Africans and there are Africans and there are Africans. Infact a whole continent of them. So we can work out the who is who among them and work with the appropriate ones. While the rest can ......................(know what I mean)

No problems at all!

 

[Kamal_Jamal]

First of all, we don't treat them like slaves like other Asian power does. It's their land, they produce their crops, our companies just market it worldwide giving them a fair share of their hard works. We aren't making them work at gun point.

And if they don't like our presence, then they should write it to our ministry in open. We don't take advise from third party irrelevant entity.

Listen, I’m African technically. I have been to Addis Ababa and in Egypt we have a large Ethiopian, Eritrean, Somali and Sudanese population and many other Africans. I know these people quite well. And they have a clear distaste for Indians. This is the brutal truth, even in Kenya which has a sizeable Indian community; they just don’t get along with the locals or “blacks”.

The land deals in Ethiopia have happened in the Gambella and Oromia regions. The people in these regions are oppressed. They have no say and their land was forcefully removed by Ethiopian military. They have two choices, left their ancestral land forever or work on an Indian plantation for nothing. They choose the latter but have held resentment and bitter every since. The unlike and hatred dictator has died but the hatred and animosity from the land deals remain. Just remember what happened in Uganda, things haven’t changed that much

Africa isn’t that simple, such as write a letter and inform our ministry in open. Dictatorships are brought in with the barrel of the gun and is the only way to remove them.

So for speaking the truth

 

[Skull and Bones]

Listen, I’m African technically. I have been to Addis Ababa and in Egypt we have a large Ethiopian, Eritrean, Somali and Sudanese population and many other Africans. I know these people quite well. And they have a clear distaste for Indians. This is the brutal truth, even in Kenya which has a sizeable Indian community; they just don’t get along with the locals or “blacks”.

The land deals in Ethiopia have happened in the Gambella and Oromia regions. The people in these regions are oppressed. They have no say and their land was forcefully removed by Ethiopian military. They have two choices, left their ancestral land forever or work on an Indian plantation for nothing. They choose the latter but have held resentment and bitter every since. The unlike and hatred dictator has died but the hatred and animosity from the land deals remain. Just remember what happened in Uganda, things haven’t changed that much

Africa isn’t that simple, such as write a letter and inform our ministry in open. Dictatorships are brought in with the barrel of the gun and is the only way to remove them.

So for speaking the truth

You may be right mate. See, if any country want to work with any other country, then the MoU will be between the governments. Now if the government doesn't represent the masses, then what can we do about it. The best we can do is fare business with our African counterparts. Rest depend on their governments.