India and West Asia Relations

India’s vision to establish itself as a powerful and prosperous state in Asia has led it down various paths in terms of its foreign policy towards West Asia. Over the years, New Delhi has adapted its foreign policy to suit the evolving needs and conditions of global politics — from the ideologically-driven Non-Aligned Movement to a policy based on greater pragmatism. Today, the increasing multipolarity of the global order has enabled India to pursue its policy of strategic autonomy greater freedom when it comes to international relations and trade.

To understand this transformation, we must first consider the ideological foundations of Indian foreign policy. During the Cold War years of global bipolarity, India’s foreign policy followed the principles of the 1955 Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) which PM Jawaharlal Nehru founded. After decades of international sidelining and subjugation, NAM aimed to use Afro-Asian solidarity to shape international relations from offices beyond Washington and Moscow. Thus, the non-aligned values of sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference in domestic politics were a crucial component of Indian’s foreign policy fabric. In the West Asian context, this was reflected in the Nehru-Nasser alliance, through which India supported the Arabs against Western interference, particularly in the case of Palestine and the 1956 Suez Crisis.

By 1991, the Cold War formally ended with the dissolution of the USSR. Half a decade before the dissolution, changes were well on the way and the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence was incrementally receding. The US-sponsored version of neo-liberalism emerged as the final evolutionary form of global governance. Such unipolarity presented India with significantly less flexibility of options in setting its West Asian policy.

One example of this was the Gulf Crisis. On 2 August 1990, the V.P. Singh coalition government faced a threat to its geopolitical interests. Iraqi forces on the orders of President Saddam Hussain had invaded Kuwai, an oil-producing country. As the international community began to rally against Iraqi hostility, New Delhi failed to publicly align itself with either side. Iraq, a non-aligned secular state in a sea of Gulf monarchies, was India’s natural ally to for ideological reasons. Iraq was also one of the few Middle Eastern countries that supported India’s claims on Kashmir.

Importance of West Asia for India 

• India has huge stakes involved in the region such as energy, trade and safety of Indian community in the region
• 70 % of India’s imported energy needs come from West Asia & will increase as Indian economy grow
• 11 million Indians working in West Asia. India is the largest recipient of foreign remittances from west Asia. Therefore, stability in the region is high on India’s core agenda.
• Close cooperation is essential to counter radicalization in India
• To reduce the influence of china in west Asia and in Arabian Sea

Challenges in West Asia 

Security situation in West Asia has been continuously deteriorating ever since the onset of Arab Spring in 2010. The internal security situation in Syria, Iraq and Yemen has gone from bad to worse. The regional powers continue to fight proxy wars on sectarian lines, pumping huge amount of money and weapons to bolster their favoured groups. The involvement of extra-regional players such as the USA and Russia in the internal conflicts in West Asia has further aggravated the situation.

• Saudi-Iran rivalry: destabilizing West Asia and influencing West Asian geopolitics
• Terrorism has emerged as the biggest security threat to the region. The rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is the most disturbing trend.
• Pakistan is very close ally of many west Asian countries especially with GCC
• India’s close relation with Israel is another sore point with west Asia.
• India’s close relation with Iran may antagonize Saudi Arabia. India has to balance its ties with all three regional power in west Asia-Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

India’s “Look West” Policy

• A tri-directional foreign policy to accommodate the three key pillars of West Asia — Saudi Arabia, Iran and Israel
• A Secular and Non- Aligned Policy – Muslims and Jews / Shia-Sunni
• Driven more by economic calculation than political rhetoric.
• Major emphasis on Maritime Diplomacy + Energy and economic security

• West Asia is looking to India and other Asian powers to step in and offer security guarantees to the region. Many GCC states have welcomed defence cooperation agreements with India.
• In the wake of the Arab Spring and the mess in Egypt and Iraq, the Gulf states find India and China to be more reliable interlocutors than many western states.
• The structural change in the global energy market with West Asian oil and gas increasingly heading to South and East Asian markets rather than to the Trans-Atlantic markets.

After successfully implementing a “Look East” policy to promote trade and investment with its Asian neighbours, India has adopted a similar policy toward West Asia.

The Gulf region has become a major economic partner, is home to over 4 million Indians and a major source of oil and gas.

This has resulted in increased interaction, enhanced trade and economic relations and launch of negotiations towards FTA with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The Government is keen to cooperate with the Gulf countries in the promotion of peace and stability in the region. It has appointed a Special Envoy for the Gulf and West Asia.

Indian stakes and interests in the Gulf region are as obvious as they are immense. Geographically, the Gulf is India’s extended neighbourhood and the only link with the no less vital Central Asia, with Pakistan denying this country transit rights and Afghanistan having sunk into chaos. Historically, the relationship between the subcontinent and the Gulf goes back to ancient days. Britain controlled the Gulf littoral tightly because of its overwhelming strategic importance for the defence of India, the brightest jewel in the crown. The region has more to it than just being a centre of Israel-Arab confrontation. The geographical extent of what was West Asia has greatly expanded since the collapse of the USSR and is now called the “Greater Middle East”. This region shares a long historical association with India. It is the source for India’s ever-expanding needs of energy. It is also huge markets for Indian goods, services and skilled manpower.

Advantages of the ‘Look-West’ Policy

• A constructive and dauntless “look-west” policy from India would acknowledge the geopolitical significance of Pakistan.
• Rather than being an obstacle, Pakistan could become a link between the Indian subcontinent and the energy-rich region.
• Pakistan could also act as a transit route for the movement of people, goods and energy between India and the West Asian region.
• Pakistan has begun to move the self-perception of its location from geopolitics to geo-economics.
• More importantly, Pakistan’s ‘Look East’ Policy had developed considerably as evident from its admission into the security arm of the ASEAN.
• India will gain overland access to Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia. Currently, India has to circumnavigate Pakistan and get access to Afghanistan through Iran.
• The essence of this policy was that an India-Pakistan reconciliation would be meaningful because it would increase the potential for regional economic integration in the subcontinent and also trans-regional cooperation between countries in Central Asia, South Asia and the Gulf.
• Resolving the Kashmir issue is vital for unleashing the geo-economic potential of the region. Pakistan itself has delinked its Kashmir issue with India and the construction of pipelines overland from Iran and Central Asia to India.
• The building of pipelines across Pakistan’s territory would also make it easy to construct highways linking India with Afghanistan and Iran.
• India could offer to negotiate trade and transit treaties involving all the 4 nations.
• India could also suggest cooperation with Pakistan in encouraging free trade between South Asia and the Gulf Cooperation Council. Any permanent resolution of the Kashmir issue would inevitably involve creative political cooperation across the divided state. It would also necessitate the complete normalization of Indo-Pak relations.
• Projects like interconnected electricity grids, natural gas pipelines, and transnational highway roads will realise the new strategic conception of Pakistan as India’s gateway to the West. India, in turn, will be Pakistan’s gateway to the East.