As India seeks to pursue multi-dimensional engagement with the Middle East, Prime Minister’s latest visit to the region has merely underscored the growing salience of the region in the Indian foreign policy matrix.
Gaining Significance in the Region: India’s ‘Look West’ policy has evolved rapidly. The Prime Minister’s fifth visit to West Asia in the last three and a half years and sustained high-level engagement has ensured that India’s voice is becoming an important one in a region that is witnessing major power rivalries playing out in the open like never before.
Enhanced Trade Engagements: India’s robust engagements with the Arab Gulf states are part of this dynamics too. Trade and economic ties are becoming central to the India-UAE relationship. A growing convergence is emerging between India and the UAE in tackling terrorism, which India has been successful in tapping into with an eye on Pakistan.
Countering China: Oman has been a long-standing partner of India in the Middle East too, where Indians constitute the largest expatriate community. With the Indian Ocean becoming a priority focus area of India, Oman’s significance is only likely to grow.
Infrastructure: India is already involved with several projects in the region, such as the Farkhor Air Base in Tajikistan and the Chabahar port facility in Iran, both of which are not fully functional yet. There are no similar projects underway in Southeast Asia. India should focus on to improve its strategic and economic relations with countries that generally trust and seek better relations with India, like Afghanistan.
Trust Factor: Moreover, India is in the good position of being trusted by all the major factions in the Middle East; it has good relations with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq, and the Gulf States. There are particularly large Indian communities in the Gulf States and the development of Dubai as a major financial and cultural center for South Asians is another factor that India should consider leveraging as it reaches out to the region.
