A year ago emphasising over development assistance to needy countries India pitched for deeper South-South cooperation including in Africa. Advocating for better donor-recipient relationship, seen as a subtle dig at China, India said it does not attach any conditionality and has always been respectful of sovereignty of the partner nations. India is virtually the largest donor to its neighbours and has a solidarity based approach attaching no conditionality and always respecting sovereignty of our partner countries. For India the greatest strength of the South-South cooperation has been its diversity of forms and flows. The core idea is to share best practices and lessons with other partner countries. For this reason, it cannot be and it should not be put in a box and judged according to the orthodox parameters of donor, recipient relationships. China has been involved in major infrastructure projects in various African countries. India has been engaged in capacity-building initiatives in the African continent with whom it shares a historical bonding. The neighbourhood first policy of the Modi government has boosted practical cooperation among the countries in a number of areas including connectivity, human resource development and institution building thus making India as the largest donor by far to virtually all neighbours. Today once again Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated in maintaining sovereignity thus taking dig on terrorism perpetuated by Pakistan, while addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Astana, Kazakhstan. Pakistan too had become permanent member of the SCO. Modi had empahsised it is a partnership beyond strategic concerns and economic benefits. But when it comes to Kashmir the two neighbours are poles apart on the issue. So one has to see how far these two can take the regional cooperation agenda further.
