India Pakistan and Saudi Arabia

Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman made a bilateral visit to Pakistan days after a diabolical terrorist attack on CRPF convoy that martyred 40 of its soldiers. Red carpet welcome to the Crown prince culminated into a $20 billion investment offer and a joint statement supposedly seen as adverse to India’s interests.
In order to de-hyphenate India -Pakistan visits, Crown Prince returned to Saudi Arabia from his Pakistan visit and then came to India on 19th of February to make it look like a standalone visit.
However, the domestic pressure grew on the Indian government to tone down its engagement with KSA and take a more aggressive stance against KSA for being supportive of a state that harbours terrorists spilling Indian blood. PM Modi was even asked not to break protocol by receiving him personally and at least avoid his famous bear hug.
As is for all to see, PM Modi received prince personally with a warm hug, seen by many as insensitive and blasphemous.
India has a long history of trade and cultural relation with Arabian peninsula dating back to Harrapans. It is in India’s interest to have a closer engagement with KSA. It will be nothing but a knee jerk and in a fit of emotions reaction to snub KSA as is being demanded. Some of the reasons are as follows:

  1. Strategic interests.

    There is no denial of the fact that Pakistan’s economy, which is currently grappling with BOP crisis with reserves dwindling to being only three months sufficient, is sustaining with financial crutches of KSA and China’s investment. As far as China is considered the acrimony present with India is only strengthening China-Pakistan ties. Befriending enemy’s friend is akin to weakening your enemy. India’s closeness to KSA should threaten Pakistan and not the other way round. Any snub to KSA will only push KSA and Pakistan closer similar to what has happened with China-Pakistan relations.

  2. Energy Security

    KSA is a leading supplier of Crude oil to India. In the backdrop of US sanctions on Iran and growing political uncertainty in Venezuela, strengthening our ties with KSA is crucial for our own energy security. KSA is also helping in establishing crude reservoirs in India for the latter to deal with volatility in the international crude market.

  3. Strengthening India’s role in the Middle East.

    Politics of the Middle East is dominated largely by a Shia-Sunni divide. With Iran, considered the leader of the Shia world, India already has a reliable strategic relationship that has endured major strategic upheavals like previous US sanctions on Iran. KSA which is considered the leader of the Muslim world in general and Sunni world in particular, it is pertinent for India to have good relations with it. India was able to steer clear of the Cold War only because it had a policy of non-alignment. To prevent any spillover impact of Middle East miasma onto India, it is important to stay equidistant and equiclose to Iran and KSA.
KSA's economy is largely based on crude oil production. With Paris climate agreement and International Solar alliance in place, the world is expected to take a greener path for development potentially challenging the clout of Arab countries.
It is therefore in the interest of both KSA and India to respect each other’s interest and every effort must be made to strengthen the relationship for each other’s benefit.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Adultery: Sec 497 and Supreme Court Judgement Explained

Image
Of late, Supreme court has delivered momentous judgements based on the bedrock of Individual liberty and freedom. The recent one is the Adultery judgement. The question before the court was whether sec 497 of IPC stands the test of constitutional morality or not. A plain reading of the sec 497 gives a sense of gross gender discrimination and outright breach of article 14 of the constitution. Sec 497 as it stood before this judgement was: Adultery.—Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery, and shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both. In such case the wife shall not be punishable as an abettor. To understand what Sec 497 meant let's refer to below i...
Read more

Thoughts, Beliefs and Mind

Can you recall what your thoughts were after you watched a movie based on mystic powers or supernatural beings? Recall your thoughts after you finished watching Interstellar or Twilight or Doctor strange or Vampire Diaries. Did you not start believing in those ideas? Those concepts of Supernatural beings or Mystical Powers or Space-Time continuum, might not attract zilch of our acceptability, even for a moment, in normal times but they come across as ‘truthful’ after our ‘indoctrination’ in the three hours of the movie. However, this realization stays only for few minutes before our usual rationality dawns upon us. What happens during these hours of ‘indoctrination’ that makes us put our trust in to things that we otherwise consider stupid, irrational, untrue and at times childish? Our Mind is a witch that changes our belief system through the spell of thoughts. You have control over what thoughts you give to mind and these thoughts ultimately change your belief system. So if ...
Read more