When New Delhi hosts the Fourth India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) 2026 in May, development initiatives, education, capacity building, expansion of the diplomatic footprint, and defence cooperation are anticipated to be on the agenda, according to official sources on Tuesday. The Ministry of External Affairs has announced that External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will present the summit's plans on Thursday.
As the planning for IAFS have been underway for some time, India has been holding consultations with partner countries in Africa. On the fringes of the 14th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in March, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal met with ministers and diplomats of Africa Group members to discuss plans to expand India's investment agenda in Africa and the upcoming summit in India.

The upcoming summit is particularly significant because it will take place more than ten years after the third IAFS, which took place in October 2015. The fourth IAFS has an additional dimension because it is being held against the backdrop of supply chain disruption that has engulfed the world economy since the attack on Iran by the United States and Israel.
Stable supply chain
Analysts claim that, in contrast to the energy disruption in the Gulf region, Africa does not have a similar supply chain shock potential for India because supply chains of essential products remain steady despite around 50 conflicts on the continent.India must, however, make sure that its commitment to African states is matched by implementation. Only 40% of what India imports into Africa can now be implemented. According to Ajay Dubey, Distinguished Fellow of the Chintan Research Foundation (CRF), "this has to improve significantly so that what India commits is fully implemented on the ground in Africa."

Mr Dubey pointed out that Line of Credit was no longer common in Africa, where nations instead go to India for Foreign Direct Investment. Big business in India must intervene for that. Can they, however, invest in crucial sectors while avoiding the western dominance of the African continent? "That is what we have to see," Mr. Dubey stated, contending that African partners were no longer interested in Indian attempts to engage Africa in "small and medium enterprises" since they were also seeking investments from Global South leaders.

The summit will give India the chance to showcase some of the most recent initiatives the Indian government has undertaken, such as the opening of the IIT Madras campus in Zanzibar. It will also give India a chance to assess its strategic and diplomatic footprint in the vast continent.
Since 2018, India has created 16 new missions in Africa, increasing its diplomatic presence to 45 countries. The summit will offer a chance to assess India's diplomatic outreach among African Union member nations.