China's decision to contribute troops to protect its commercial interests in Africa and committing to link nations in the dark continent with railway, road and regional aviation, has woken India up. India is set to put behind its Ebola fears and host a summit with leaders from Africa's 54 countries in New Delhi in late October. This was originally scheduled for last year in December, where nations were told that New Delhi would not host the India-Africa Forum Summit due to a scare over the Ebola virus, that had hit Africa. Some of these nations had questioned India's wisdom in putting off the summit, observing that the same Ebola scare did not deter the United Nations from hosting the UN General Assembly in New York or the United States hosting African leaders in Washington. Prime minister Narendra Modi is understood to have specifically directed the ministry of external affairs (MEA) to begin preparations for such a summit, to join both the US and China, who are aggressively pumping money into the continent, widely seen as a key future global economic engine.

Officials concede that deferring the summit over Ebola is crude, and only shows disrespect and arrogance. They believe that with the Middle East crisis, the traditional energy bowl for India, African destinations Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Sudan have become all the more important for the supply of crude oil and gas. The third edition of the India-Africa summit is already a year behind schedule after it was postponed in 2014. But there are others in the MEA, who say the summit was postponed after due deliberations and not aimed to show disrespect. Some 1,000 delegates from African countries were supposed to have participated. "Since these countries had reported Ebola cases, there was concern that excessive screening of attending dignitaries at airports could sully the mood and they may find it disrespectful," said an official.

Both China and India are already locked in competition to secure sea lanes in the Indian Ocean Region. Over the past year, China has secured docking rights for commercial and naval shipping to conducting naval patrols and joint training exercises with countries in the region. Besides India and China, countries like Japan, Brazil, Turkey and South Korea, as well as organisations such as the European Union (EU), the Commonwealth and La Francophonie, have been regularly hosting Africa-focused summits. Last year, US president Barack Obama also hosted over 40 African leaders in Washington. In 2007, the US army created the Africa Command (Africom), which has been steadily expanding its presence in the continent.

MEA officials said they didn't now want to wait for longer. "We simply could not put off our commitments with Africa any longer. It is too important –something we could not afford to push back further," said secretary (West) Navtej Sarna. The Summits have become a platform where the Government of India and African partners identify areas of cooperation, and where such cooperation exists, monitor and expand it.