Paper short abstract:

Using an historical perspective the paper aims at exploring reasons and consequences of the Indian involvement in United Nations peace-keeping missions in Africa, with particular attention to the Congo.

Paper long abstract:

Since independence, India has played a peculiar role towards Africa. During the Nehru years the spirit of Bandung informed Delhi's approach in the fight against colonialism. By the Sixties, India stood firm against white minority rule in Southern Africa bringing up the issue at the United Nations.

Different political crises gave the Indian government the opportunity to intervene through the UN in several African conflict theaters. Behind this engagement one can single out different sets of motivations in a mix of ethics and power politics that informed and still informs Indian foreign policy.

Using an historical approach the paper aims at exploring reasons and consequences of the Indian involvement in UN peace-keeping missions in the Congo.

Against the backdrop of important transformations in the way of conceiving the relations with Africa over the last fifty years, how has the Indian participation in the various UN missions in the Congo affected the bilateral relation with the DRC? What kind of agenda shaped Indian presence in the Sixties and how has it been tuned over time? Do the new economic and political imperatives influence present Indian and Congolese attitudes in the framework of a very peculiar (and often criticized) multilateral cooperation?

These are some of the issues addressed in order to shed light on a specific dimension of India's involvement in the Congo. The historical perspective helps to mark continuity and change in a complex engagement often depicted either in rhetorical terms or exclusively through the power politics lens.