Breaking the Shackles of Geography

PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi’s recent visits to Nigeria, Brazil, and Guyana underscore India’s growing ambition to re-imagine its role in the Global South and strengthen ties with regions that have often been overlooked in its foreign policy calculus. These engagements highlight a broader strategy to bridge cultural, economic, and geopolitical gaps with Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Among the key moments of this tour was the Second India-CARICOM Summit, hosted in collaboration with Guyana, which redefined India’s outreach to the Caribbean nations and marked a milestone in its engagement with the region.

Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, in that order, have historically been perceived as regions suffering from a ‘tyranny of geography’—remote from India both in physical distance and traditional spheres of influence. For decades, India’s limited economic resources as a developing nation and the high cost-benefit analysis of investments in smaller economies acted as barriers to substantial engagement. However, as India’s economic stature and global influence have grown, so has its appetite for cultivating robust partnerships across distant geographies. India’s outreach to Nigeria, Brazil, and Guyana symbolise this transformation, projecting the country as a champion of the Global South with the capability to curate meaningful partnerships beyond traditional spheres of influence.

Nigeria, a leading voice in Africa and a recent inductee into the expanded BRICS grouping, occupies a central role in India’s Africa strategy. The visit underlined India’s commitment to strengthening its energy security and diversifying supply chains. Nigeria’s abundant resources make it a natural partner for an energy-import-dependent India, particularly against the backdrop of global disruptions caused by the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Beyond energy, the visit reflected a common vision for reforming global governance structures, including the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Besides, India’s outreach to Nigeria fits into its broader ‘extended neighbourhood’ vision.

In Brazil, Modi built on the shared legacy of the G20 presidency, capping a year of India’s leadership focused on a development-oriented global economic order. Brazil, as the largest country in Latin America, shares India’s vision of a stronger Global South. The revival of the India-Brazil- South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum during the visit was a significant development, linking cooperation among three continents—Asia, Africa, and Latin America— while excluding China. By doing so, the forum underscores the distinct developmental aspirations of countries often overshadowed by China’s economic might in discussions on the Global South.

The most significant leg of Modi’s tour was his visit to Guyana, where India co-hosted the Second India- CARICOM Summit. This meeting was a watershed moment in India’s outreach to the Caribbean, following the inaugural summit in New York in 2019. India positioned itself as a ‘reliable partner’ for CARICOM nations with cultural ties, and shared aspirations for the Global South. CARICOM, comprising 15 member states— including Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, and others—represents a collective voice for the Caribbean on global platforms.

The Second India-CARICOM Summit could become an inflection point in India’s relationship with CARICOM nations, especially considering the slew of measures that were announced as part of the partnership. India’s commitments to CARICOM were framed around the acronym CARICOM, symbolising a comprehensive strategy of engaging with regional countries in the areas of capacity-building; agriculture and food security; renewable energy and climate change; innovation, technology and trade; cricket and culture; ocean economy and maritime security; and medicine and healthcare.

In capacity-building, India announced one thousand more Indian Technical Economic Cooperation (ITEC) slots for CARICOM countries over the next five years. In the area of food security, a critical challenge for these countries, India’s experience with embracing technology in the agricultural domain—drones, digital farming, farm mechanisation and soil testing—has been another promised area of cooperation. Given that Sargassum seaweed poses a major challenge for tourism in the Caribbean—a seaweed that has a pungent odour and is washing ashore in large quantities since 2011—India’s promise to help convert the seaweed into fertiliser could be one of the ways to turn around the negative impact that the seaweed has had on tourism in the Caribbean.

India’s call to the CARICOM nations to partner with New Delhi in the fields of renewable energy and climate change, especially by joining global initiatives led by India such as the International Solar Alliance, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, Mission LiFE, and the Global Biofuel Alliance could bring benefits to a region battered by climate change-induced weather disturbances. Furthermore, if India can transfer some of the transformative changes brought about by innovation, technology and trade at home, through its Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), cloud-based DigiLocker and UPI models to countries in CARICOM to augment public service delivery as promised, it could open doors for India’s outreach to other regions like South and Southeast Asia, closer to home.

Among other focus areas during the visit, India’s potential in the CARICOM region as a country that partners with regional nations on ocean economy and maritime security could be a game-changer for its maritime vision, especially in areas like maritime domain mapping and hydrography in the Caribbean Sea. Quality and affordable healthcare is an area where India’s promise can deliver results in the CARICOM nations very rapidly. For one, the promise of replicating India’s model of making available generic medicine through the Jan Aushadhi Kendras and sending yoga experts may be easily implementable.

Reviving cultural memory and diaspora connect have become India’s unstated but consistent policy outreach now. Modi’s visit to the Indian Arrival Monument in Guyana—a replica of the first ship that brought Indian indentured labourers to the region in 1838—was a poignant reminder of the historical ties between India and the Caribbean. The monument, gifted by India in 1991, symbolises a shared heritage and underscores India’s commitment to its diaspora, which forms a significant part of the Caribbean population.

The CARICOM nations, aligned with India on the need for reforming global institutions, expressed their willingness to work closely with Delhi on this front. As small states with limited representation in global forums, CARICOM countries view India as a powerful advocate for the Global South and Delhi finds reciprocal voices of support in a continent where it had none. India’s announcement to host the Third India-CARICOM Summit presents an opportunity to deepen this partnership and strengthen the bridge. With two oceans separating India and the Caribbean, sustained and result-oriented engagement will be crucial to building enduring ties.

The conferring of the Order of Excellence of Guyana and Dominica’s highest National Award on the prime minister was a testament of the intent that the Caribbean nations want with India—one that transcends a purely economic bond. India has several advantages in Africa, Latin America, and especially Central America which most big economies, especially China, do not. Perhaps, it is this sue generis historical, cultural link that India should leverage more when it seeks to engage with the nations of CARICOM. As India and CARICOM prepare for the next summit, this partnership promises to be a cornerstone of India’s expanded global engagement in the years to come.

AfricaCaribbeanCARICOM-India SummitGuyanaLatin AmericaNarendra Modi