INDIA AND WEST ASIA : THE STORY SO FAR…

India’s relations with the middle east have evolved over a long period of history and the evolution of these ties have various facets ranging from cultural, ideological, political, and historical  factors. To understand the various dimensions of this journey we shall try to observe all the  phases of this evolution and try to  decipher  them one by one for better clarity.

HISTORICAL EVOLUTION

India and west-asia have had great civilization contacts in history.

• The Indus valley civilization ,The Mesopotamian civilization and The Nile delta civilization have been some of the greatest human civilizations . These great ancient civilizations and their  archiological studies exhibit great evidence of  not just  a robust trade and commerce relation between the two regions but also showcase a vibrant and flourishing cultural and social bonhomie between the people of both regions.
• From the advent of  Islam to the British period, these contacts were further groomed and became richer and deeper.
• In the pre-independence period Jawahar lal Nehru participated in the congress of oppressed nationalities with his idea of pan-asiatic federation.
• These efforts bought the leaders of freedom struggle in these countries together and bought about a close affinity between the nationalist organizations of asia .
• The khilafat movement and the widespread response it evoked in the Indian freedom struggle , served to bring India and the west-asian countries further close.
• So much so that the countries like Tunisia, Egypt, and Palestine, attended the annual congress sessions throughout the 1930’s and later.
• The Indian national congress in turn helped these Asian nationalist organizations to carry out there respective nationalistic agendas in their countries thus further deepening the ties between both regions.
• These ties and shared ideas of struggle and freedom formed the bedrock upon which the                                   “non-aligned movement”  was built in the post world war two world.

THE  INDIA-WEST  ASIA  JOURNEY CAN BE UNDERSTOOD  UNDER THE FOLLOWING PHASES :-

PHASE :1 PERIOD OF FRIENDSHIP (1947-1961)

India’s relations with these nations began with mutual respect and understanding in this period.

The main reasons for this being:

• The emergence of a new world politics in the post second world war world.
• The cold war that had resulted due to the bi-polar policies of the two superpowers that is the soviet union and the United states of America.
• The ideology of “non-alignment” provided a sanctuary of calm in the highly perturbed cold war engulfed world order.
• India and the countries of West Asia shared cordial understanding on contemporary issues in this period and developed better ties in political, economic and strategic spheres  .

India was a firm believer of all Arab Unity, as reflected in its policy towards the palestine movement.

• India had rejected the creation of a separate jewish state in Palestine and voted against U.N.S.C.O.P's plan of creating a separate state of Israel.
• India voted against the entry of Israel to United Nations in 1949.
•  India has not only been maintaining its stand of returning the Palestine refugees to their home in way of the Israeli occupation of the territories since, then but also provided financial contribution to them.
• Nehru's personal chemistry with the top leader of Arab world like Nasir of Egypt had also created the common understanding of the emerging issues.
• This convergence further consolidated on the issues of Palestine movement, Suez war and Algeria's self determination.
• In Arab Israeli conflict India always took stand in favour of Arab world in the United Nations and other platforms. 

Entire Arab world greatly appreciated Indian approach in these matters. All these initiatives created an environment of cordial relations between India and West Asia.

PHASE :2 PERIOD OF ASSESSING EACH OTHER(1962-1971)

India's policy towards West Asia faced a challenging situation in this phase.

• India fought three wars (1962, 1965 and 1971) with its neighbours whereas the  Arab-Israel war proved to be the litmus test for mutual relations.
• India faced an embarrassing situation as few Arab countries including Egypt remained silent on the  Sino-Indian War.
• In the Indo-Pak wars, situation became more critical when most of the Arab countries openly supported Pakistan.
•  India found itself in an isolated situation in West Asia.
• On the question of Bangladesh, Arab world criticized Indian approach and took stand in favour of Pakistan.

These happenings bought the indo West Asian ties down to the lowest level ever.

• In the Arab-Israel war of 1967, India's stand remained in favour of Arab world despite their arrogance in earlier stages.
• India not only opposed Israel but also took part actively in peacekeeping forces for maintaining peace in this fragile region.
• India extended its support to the Arab world and expressed desire to participate in the Islamic Summit of 1969, but it was not allowed to participate in it.

This situation was a setback to India's initiatives in this region and forced India to reconsider its policies towards the Arab world.

PHASE :3 CHANGE TOWARDS CORDIAL TIES (1972-1978)

This period witnessed drastic changes in this region. This had direct bearing on India west Asia ties.

• The Arab Israeli war of 1973  changed the entire parameters of international relations. Due to external powers intervention, this war had transformed into a regional war.
• The role of Pakistan in this war was a bit dubious in West-Asian perception.
• In this situation, India became and ultimate choice for the Arab countries due to its  “non-aligned”  posture.
• The Arab Israel war had bought the countries of West Asia closer to the policy of positive neutrality  in international relations.
• The Great oil game had already been started during the Arab-Israeli war in this region.
•  The countries of West Asia had also started to use oil as a political weapon.
• It had a direct bearing on India foreign policy, as it was heavily dependent on the imports from this region.

Energy needs demanded a more constructive policy from New Delhi.

• The death of Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1970, gave a new dimension to the Regional politics of West Asia.
•  Arab nationalism was pushed behind the curtain , and islamic ideology came to the fore by the active policies of Saudi Arabia.

   It again forced India to change its policy towards West Asia.

•  India made efforts to cultivate  ties with all the countries.
•  Economic initiatives replaced the political contents in bilateral relations between India and these countries of Western Asia.
• India adopted long term strategies to negate the fallout of the import of oil and its politics.
•  Besides India also made efforts to manage it's trade balance through both bilateral are multilateral interactions.

India and countries such as Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar , Kuwait and Libya started to collaborate in joint industrial undertaking, service sector, advisory services and payment based on easy lines.

PHASE :4 PERIOD OF NEW COLD WAR AND CHANGING PARAMETERS(1979-1991)

• The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in 1979 had changed all the parameters of international relationships.
• It brought the new cold war at the very doorstep to India.

• In Iran, fundamentalist Islam came to the fore front after the Fall of the Shah regime.
• The Iran-Iraq war further aggravated the critical situation in West Asia in the decade of 1980's.
• On the other hand the United States of America strengthened its military position in the region by developing base camps for its military and intelligence gathering at Basra, Oman and Diego Garcia.

All this happening had great ramifications for India's policy towards West Asia.

PHASE :5 POST COLD WAR PERIOD & CONTINUITY IN RELATIONSHIP(1992-1999)

With the disintegration of Soviet Union and an end to the cold war era India had to work towards a fresh perspective in its foreign policy especially in the West Asian region.

The basic parameters of international politics changed completely.

• A peace  process started between Israel and the Palestine Liberation organisation (P.L.O.) in West Asia with the direct initiatives taken by USA. Both the sides agreed for peaceful settlement of this problem in 1998.
• This peace process provided India with an opportunity to strengthen political, economic and strategic ties with West Asia.
• The demise of soviet Union gave birth to the idea of a “new world order”  in which the United States of America was being seen as the sole superpower influencing world politics.
• The countries of West Asia had started to access this region on the basis of Islamic fraternity.
• This led to the rise of competitive influence building activities in this region.
• Besides because these countries had great potential in natural resources  external powers like the United States, russia and china started to try build their sphere of influence around these Nations.

The strategic scenario had a direct bearing on India's foreign policy.

• In the absence of direct transport access , india had to collaborate with like minded countries in West-Asia like Iran, Oman and Turkey to get access to this region.
• India also adopted a changed economic process of open market and foreign direct investment in the light of globalisation.
•  India tried to increase exports to these countries for maintaining a balance of trade which was highly unfavourable for India so far due to oil imports.
• India wanted to attract the “petro-dollar” as FDI in Indian market.

PHASE:6 DRASTIC CHANGES AND CONTRADICTIONS (2000 ONWARDS)

India's policy towards West Asia in the 21st century has witnessed drastic changes.

• Afghanistan, Iran , the demise of Saddam Hussein and the Syrian crisis along with the rise of ISIS have been the key issues demanding a constructive response from India's foreign policy.
• The United States and it's allies invaded Iraq in 2003. India's response was ambiguous to say the least. Although india had already signed united Nations resolution for disarming and for the search of Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in 2002, india refused to participate directly in the conflict.
• India not only supported all the United Nations resolutions regarding Iraq, but also provided economic assistance of 20 million dollars for reconstruction activities in this country.

Historically Israel never occupied any space in Indian Foreign Policy towards West Asia.

• India had opposed the United Nations resolution for the partition of Palestine on the basis of religion in 1948.
•  India has been a great supporter of Arab world since then.
•  But in the decade of 1990's, the Ice started to melt due to the Israel- P.L.O. peace agreement.

India established its full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992.

• After that there was a great deal of reciprocal gestures between the two countries but could never reach a desirable zenith due to political constraints.

It was during the period of Atal Bihari Vajpayee government that serious initiatives were taken to improve ties with Israel.

• Agreement have since been signed in the areas of Defence. agriculture, and security related issues.
• Recently India launched an Israeli spy satellite into Orbit from its Space Station.
• Israel has also expressed interest in participating in India's Chandrayaan mission to moon.
• Israel is India's second largest arms supplier at present.
• India and Israel share intelligence and counter terrorist tactics in these years.
•  India is regarded as Israel’s strongest Ally in Asia in 21st century.

WHY IS WEST ASIA SO IMPORTANT FOR INDIA?

The major reasons why the relations with west Asia have always been important for India are:

• Geographical proximity and it’s direct bearings.
• Demographic assimilation and it’s impact.
• Political happening and their impact.
• Convergence of the major issues of international politics.
• Changed regional economic scenario.

 India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world with a population size second only to China. India’s aspiration to become a global power and a developed nation is dependent upon it’s ability to fulfill it’s energy needs and the maintainence of it’s stature not only as a regional player but as a globally relevant power. For India to even come close to achieving it’s goals, peace and stability in the Middle-east region are a prerequisite.

 Thus India needs to continue following a dynamic foreign policy in sync with the fast changing world of the “Middle-East”.

source: youtube.com