Round
The World
New
Delhi, 16 September 2022
Jaishankar In S.
Arabia
SECURING POLITICS
& TRADE
By Dr D.K. Giri
(Prof. International
Relations, JIMMC)
The External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar
was in Saudi Arabia on a three-day visit beginning 10 September. It was his
first official visit to the country since taking over South Block. He was armed
with a letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveying greetings of their
upcoming National Day on September 23, to the Crown Prince. At the same time,
as a part of reciprocal courtesy, the EAM extended an invitation to the Crown
Prince to visit India at an early date. In material terms, the EAM was tasked
with consolidating the growing ties between both the countries.
Jaishankar began his schedule by interacting with
2.2 million-strong Indian community which is the largest expatriate group in
the Kingdom. He commended the Indian expats in Saudi, “consciously or
unconsciously, all of you through your achievements, contribution, profession
and friendship have collectively built up what is the Saudi perception of India.
For that, your country will be always grateful”. He added, “in many ways all of
you set the image of India and what Saudis think about and what we are about”.
In order to encourage and seduce investment
in and attention to India, Jaishankar said that India had made powerful efforts
to grow its economy and emerge as a higher- income country and that it will be
the fastest growing major economy in the world this year with at least 7 per
cent of growth despite the challenges posed by the Ukraine crisis. He ended by
assuring, “one of our foreign policy priorities is to ensure that our people
get good treatment abroad”.
The EAM met his counterpart Prince Faisal bin
Farhan Al Saud in Riyadh. Both the ministers co-chaired the inaugural meeting
of the Committee on Political, Security, Social, and Cultural Cooperation
(PSSC), which works under the umbrella framework called India-Saudi Arabia
Strategic Partnership. Both the ministers evaluated the progress in relations
across the domains – political, trade, energy, investments, defence, security
and culture. Several areas were prioritised for further work in improving
cooperation, such as food security, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, defence
industry and entertainment.
Jaishankar met the Secretary General of the
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Dr. Nayef Falah Mubarak Al-Hajraf and discussed
India-GCC relations. They signed a MoU on mechanism of consultations between
India and GCC. One of the mechanisms is to institutionalise annual dialogue
between India and GCC, which will be aided by several working groups on
different areas of cooperation. GCC plays an important role in the
Middle-Eastern regional situation and India enjoys cordial relations with the
Council. GCC is a regional, inter-governmental, political and economic union
consisting of six countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and
United Arab Emirates.
His next stop was the Prince Saud Al Faisal
Institute of Diplomatic Studies, where he addressed the Saudi diplomats. In his
speech he underlined the importance of India-Saudi Strategic Relationship at a
time when the world is at crossroads. He said, “our collaboration holds promise
of shared growth, prosperity, stability, security and development”.
Let us remember that Saudi Arabia is important
for India for aforesaid multiple reasons. On trade, Saudi is the fourth largest
partner. More than 18 per cent of crude oil imports come from there. During
April-December 2021, bilateral trade was USD 29.28 billion – imports from Saudi
Arabia were valued at USD 22.65 billion and exports worth USD 6.63 billion.
To trace the history, Indo-Saudi relations go
back to 1000 AD when trade between Southern India and Arabia flourished and
became the backbone of the Arabian economy. In fact, Arab traders monopolised
the spice trade between India and Europe until the advent of European
imperialist powers. India was one of the first countries to establish ties with
the third Saudi State after the unification of Saudi Arabia through a military
and political campaign, which trounced various tribes, sheikhdoms, city states,
emirates and kingdoms of most of the Arabian Peninsula. The unification process
started in 1902 and ended in 1932.
The formal diplomatic relations between India
and Saudi Arabia were established soon after India became independent in 1947. The
relationship has grown since then with ups and downs. The bilateralism has been
backed by visits by Indian Prime Ministers to Saudi Arabia: Jawaharlal Nehru
(1955), Indira Gandhi (1982), Manmohan Singh (2010) and Narendra Modi (2016 and
2019). Likewise, in 2019, Saudi Crown Prince Mohamad bin Salman visited India. The
elephant in the room has been Pakistan which has strong religious link with
Saudi Arabia: both are Sunni Islamic countries.
However, Saudi Arabia realised the radical
changes in international geopolitics and the need for realigning with the new
configuration of powers. Once upon a time, a development, which was unthinkable,
happened. The Middle-Eastern countries made rapprochement with Israel and a new
alliance came up, which is called I2U2 comprising India, Israel, UAE and USA. Hence,
having disentangled from the past, Saudi Arabia has begun to look at India with
a new strategic perspective. To start with, Saudi Arabia honoured Prime
Minister Modi with their highest civilian award. During the first visit of Modi
in 2016, Saudi announced investment of 100 billion USD in India.
Since then, today’s Indo-Saudi cooperation is
not just restricted to the traditional area of oil-energy trade. The
relationship has become multi-dimensional including defence, maritime security,
counter-terrorism, science and technology, strategic oil reserves, investments,
tourism and so on. This closeness has been necessitated by the respective needs
of the countries. Massive economic reform programmes are being carried out in
Saudi Arabia for which India’s technological and skill-power assistance are
needed. Similarly, New Delhi needs Saudi investments in India’s development
along with cooperation in economic and security matters.
Cooperation in security matters constitutes mutual
interest as both countries are concerned by the security concerns in their
respective regions. While India continues to face cross-border terrorism, Saudi
Arabia is vulnerable to recurring missile and drone attacks on its major oil
fields. The strikes on Aramco’s oil processing plant, Abqaiq, and the Khuris
oil field on September 14 in 2019 are cases in point. Both countries agreed to
conduct a Comprehensive Security Dialogue. In the maritime security domain,
both countries agreed to allow their navies to hold joint naval exercises.
All in all, India and Saudi Arabia relations
are driven by both realpolitik and the strategic interests. They have begun to
realise that by focussing on their national and mutual interests, they will
benefit a lot more than by letting their relations be dictated by a third
party. The jinx has been broken. Perhaps, the die has been cast. The visit of
the Foreign Minister should enhance the relations and in the immediate as well
as long run, it is for the leadership of both countries to give teeth to their
talks, agreements as well as the very common place diplomatic tool, the optics.---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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