Lavrov Informed Africans That India Is An Independent Multipolar Powerhouse

Considering the economic, leadership, and security roles nowadays played by China, India, and Russia in Africa respectively, it can therefore more accurately be said that the RIC core of BRICS is a multipolar force to be reckoned with there instead of just China like many had previously thought up until the game-changing events of the past year.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov informed Africans during a press conference while on his latest tour of the continent that India is an independent multipolar powerhouse. His exact words were as follows: “Those powerhouses of their respective regions and to the large extent for the world economy as China and India – you cannot ignore them and you cannot dictate to them -- that they should develop the way that will continue to enrich the West – this is colonialism.”

His words are important in and of themselves but also have even more significance upon analyzing their context. Regarding their face value, Russia’s top diplomat simply shared a statement of objectively existing and easily verifiable fact. India has proudly rebuffed US pressure upon it to sanction Russia and instead actually redoubled efforts to comprehensively expand their strategic partnership; its leadership is thus a bonafide multipolar one; and its economy also grew at twice the pace of China’s last year.

As for the analyzing the context in which Lavrov informed Africans that India is an independent multipolar powerhouse, it took place shortly after Prime Minister Modi virtually hosted the first-ever Global South Summit, the purpose of which was to brainstorm his country’s G20 chairmanship plans. That event was a tangible step in the direction of India assembling a Neo-NAM so as to collectively create a third pole of influence for shattering the Sino-American bi-multipolar superpower duopoly.

The participation of so many African states among those over 120 developing countries that were invited to participate adds an additionally strategic dimension to the fact that Lavrov chose to inform them of India’s indisputable status as an independent multipolar powerhouse while touring their continent. As such, Russia is indirectly reaffirming the viability of India’s unofficial bid to lead this collection of countries amidst the global systemic transition to complex multipolarity (“multiplexity”).

China had hitherto been considered by many Africans to be the engine of that aforesaid transition across their continent prior to last year’s game-changing sequence of events due to its economic influence there. While China’s related sway remains unmatched, India has since risen as globally significant Great Power whose multipolar influence in Africa is now a force to be reckoned with too, especially after the recent Global South Summit that it virtually hosted.

In parallel with India’s rapid emergence over the past year as one of the African countries’ most strategic partners, Russia has also begun playing a more prominent multipolar role across the continent too, albeit via its “Democratic Security” model for helping them counteract Hybrid War threats. Considering the economic, leadership, and security roles played by China, India, and Russia in Africa respectively, it can therefore more accurately be said that RIC is a force to be reckoned with there.

This clarification is important since the prior perception of China being the only significant multipolar player in Africa is outdated after everything that transpired over the last year. The People’s Republic still fulfills a major role in helping the continent’s countries find their place in the emerging Multipolar World Order, but India’s and Russia’s are now equally important in their own complementary ways too, which is what Lavrov appears to have been hinting at during his recent press conference there.