NEW DELHI/JAKARTA -- As Chinese President Xi Jinping was giving Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva the red-carpet treatment in Beijing on April 14, India's top diplomat S. Jaishankar was on a brisk tour of Africa.

Outreach efforts toward developing nations cannot be easily separated from the politics of power, with countries such as Japan and India vying for prominence with China. © Illustration by Hiroko Oshima
Grouping of less industrialized countries remains loosely defined