India-West Asia relations
Source: By Nitya Chakraborty: The Echo of India
The year 2014 promises to bring good opportunities to India in giving a big push to the economic relations between India and the West Asian nations. The positive developments in solving the political problems in Iran, Iraq and Syria as also the consolidation of the Sisi regime in Egypt signal the advancement of the process of democratic change in the region and it is a good omen for India. India has a long standing good political and economic relations with the West Asian nations and there are indications that this will be further bolstered in the coming period.
Right now, even though, there has been a setback at the just concluded Geneva conference on Syria and no solution has come out, India feel that efforts for a peaceful solution have to be pursued and both the Government side and the opposition have to be persuaded to adopt a peaceful path for the resolution of the Syrian crisis. Syria’s warring sides traded charges after the failure of the week long conference in Geneva amidst doubts about the Assad government agreeing to participate in a fresh round of discussions this month again.
Opposition leader Ahmad Jarba however confirmed that his team would participate in the discussions but he stressed that its presence was conditional on receiving the means to defend their own people on the ground. Unconfirmed reports alleged that the US Congress had secretly approved resuming weapons deliveries to moderate Syrian rebel factions. This US stance has ominous implications and India and the other countries like Russia and China have to put pressure on USA not to start supplies to the opposition since that will encourage the aggravation of the conflict.
India’s position is similar to that of Russia, China, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia and Argentina. At the same time, India is candid about its stand on chemical weapons stockpiling issue. New Delhi wants these weapons to be eliminated completely and pending their elimination, it is necessary that all chemical weapons stockpiles must be in safe and secure custody.
India has a big stake in the political stability in West Asian nations including Syria in view of large number of Indians working in those countries. Further India has large percentage of Muslims in the country’s population. The foreign policy has to take into account the interests of its own people working in those countries as also the likely impact of the Indian policy for West Asia on the Muslims within the country. As a result, India has to take a cautious policy and does not favour any sudden shift in policy.
As regards Iran, the situation is now looking positive with the understanding in Geneva being implemented as per schedule. The Israel lobby in White House could not do much to create serious problems for the implementation of the agreement. It has now been announced that the interim nuclear deal between Iran and the six big powers has taken effect from January 20 and in February, Iran will be getting a part of its blocked dues as agreed. President Obama has also indicated that there will be no more new sanctions in the interim period. This gives a good opportunity to India to step up its political and economic relations with Iran in 2014.India is now planning to upgrade the Chahbahar port as also the road connecting the Zaranj-Delaram highway, with its connectivity potential to central Asia. The programme is to increase import of oil and gas from Iran, Qatar and other Gulf countries and build LNG terminals at Indian locations beyond Hazira and Dahej in Gujarat.
In 2014, India has launched a major initiative to expand the areas of collaboration with both Iran and Iraq in oil and gas as also in other products and so far, the discussions have been very encouraging. For the Indian side, Iran wants India to step up its gas and oil imports to volume to the pre US sanctions level and India is giving this active consideration for the year 2014-15..Iran is agreeable to grant a production sharing contract to India for developing Farzad B gas fields and India is considering it.
As regards Egypt, India is actively monitoring the political developments and the foreign office is happy that the referendum for the new Constitution as organized by the army regime has been participated by the people at large. Signs are there that the anti Muslim Brotherhood army regime has been consolidating its hold and the resistance of Morsi supporters is waning. India will be happy to see that Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood is brought into the democratic system by the army regime but as of now, India welcomes the framing of the new Constitution of Egypt after the referendum. The foreign office has noted that the participation in the referendum was more than 55 per cent and the Islamist elements were not successful in their campaign for boycott of the referendum. India feels that the army chief general Abdel Fattah al Sisi has expanded his authority and he will now bid for presidency under the new constitution. India will be happy to see the emergence of a democratically elected government under the new constitution. The assessment is that for the time, the army regime is safe and the Morsi supporters will have to lie low at the present.
The year 2014 promises to bring good opportunities to India in giving a big push to the economic relations between India and the West Asian nations. The positive developments in solving the political problems in Iran, Iraq and Syria as also the consolidation of the Sisi regime in Egypt signal the advancement of the process of democratic change in the region and it is a good omen for India. India has a long standing good political and economic relations with the West Asian nations and there are indications that this will be further bolstered in the coming period.
Right now, even though, there has been a setback at the just concluded Geneva conference on Syria and no solution has come out, India feel that efforts for a peaceful solution have to be pursued and both the Government side and the opposition have to be persuaded to adopt a peaceful path for the resolution of the Syrian crisis. Syria’s warring sides traded charges after the failure of the week long conference in Geneva amidst doubts about the Assad government agreeing to participate in a fresh round of discussions this month again.
Opposition leader Ahmad Jarba however confirmed that his team would participate in the discussions but he stressed that its presence was conditional on receiving the means to defend their own people on the ground. Unconfirmed reports alleged that the US Congress had secretly approved resuming weapons deliveries to moderate Syrian rebel factions. This US stance has ominous implications and India and the other countries like Russia and China have to put pressure on USA not to start supplies to the opposition since that will encourage the aggravation of the conflict.
India’s position is similar to that of Russia, China, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia and Argentina. At the same time, India is candid about its stand on chemical weapons stockpiling issue. New Delhi wants these weapons to be eliminated completely and pending their elimination, it is necessary that all chemical weapons stockpiles must be in safe and secure custody.
India has a big stake in the political stability in West Asian nations including Syria in view of large number of Indians working in those countries. Further India has large percentage of Muslims in the country’s population. The foreign policy has to take into account the interests of its own people working in those countries as also the likely impact of the Indian policy for West Asia on the Muslims within the country. As a result, India has to take a cautious policy and does not favour any sudden shift in policy.
As regards Iran, the situation is now looking positive with the understanding in Geneva being implemented as per schedule. The Israel lobby in White House could not do much to create serious problems for the implementation of the agreement. It has now been announced that the interim nuclear deal between Iran and the six big powers has taken effect from January 20 and in February, Iran will be getting a part of its blocked dues as agreed. President Obama has also indicated that there will be no more new sanctions in the interim period. This gives a good opportunity to India to step up its political and economic relations with Iran in 2014.India is now planning to upgrade the Chahbahar port as also the road connecting the Zaranj-Delaram highway, with its connectivity potential to central Asia. The programme is to increase import of oil and gas from Iran, Qatar and other Gulf countries and build LNG terminals at Indian locations beyond Hazira and Dahej in Gujarat.
In 2014, India has launched a major initiative to expand the areas of collaboration with both Iran and Iraq in oil and gas as also in other products and so far, the discussions have been very encouraging. For the Indian side, Iran wants India to step up its gas and oil imports to volume to the pre US sanctions level and India is giving this active consideration for the year 2014-15..Iran is agreeable to grant a production sharing contract to India for developing Farzad B gas fields and India is considering it.
As regards Egypt, India is actively monitoring the political developments and the foreign office is happy that the referendum for the new Constitution as organized by the army regime has been participated by the people at large. Signs are there that the anti Muslim Brotherhood army regime has been consolidating its hold and the resistance of Morsi supporters is waning. India will be happy to see that Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood is brought into the democratic system by the army regime but as of now, India welcomes the framing of the new Constitution of Egypt after the referendum. The foreign office has noted that the participation in the referendum was more than 55 per cent and the Islamist elements were not successful in their campaign for boycott of the referendum. India feels that the army chief general Abdel Fattah al Sisi has expanded his authority and he will now bid for presidency under the new constitution. India will be happy to see the emergence of a democratically elected government under the new constitution. The assessment is that for the time, the army regime is safe and the Morsi supporters will have to lie low at the present.
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