India’s Relations with West Asia: What Patterns and What Future?

India's interests and capabilities extend well beyond the subcontinent. This series explores the geopolitical dimensions, economic ties, transnational networks, and other aspects of India's links with the Middle East (West Asia) -- a region that plays a vital role in India's economy and its future.

Writing in the July/August 2006 issue of Foreign Affairs, C. Rajan Mohan observed:

After more than a half century of false starts and unrealized potential, India is now emerging as the swing state in the global balance of power. In the coming years, it will have an opportunity to shape outcomes on the most critical issues of the twenty-first century: the construction of Asian stability, the political modernization of the greater Middle East, and the management of globalization.[1]

Almost exactly ten years later, the Pew Research Center reported the results of a public opinion poll conducted in India, which found that over two-thirds (68 percent) of respondents acknowledge that their country plays a more important role in global affairs today compared to a decade ago.[2] India’s increased standing and positive reputation in the world, which is a source of pride for its citizens, stems primarily from the country's economic progress over the past two decades, including notable strides forward in tackling extreme poverty. 

India today is the world’s third-largest economy in per capita purchasing power (PPP) terms. The cash crunch impact of the government's demonetization in November 2016 is expected to ebb; the Indian economy has strong growth prospects.[3] According to the Economic and Social Survey for Asia and the Pacific 2016, “India’s economy is projected to sustain a 7.6 per cent growth rate in both fiscal years 2016-17 and 2017-18.”[4] In addition to having emerged as a major trading and resource-consuming nation, India has expanded its naval capabilities and thus has become a credible global military power. As one of only three Asian countries and only ten in the world to maintain aircraft carriers, India now has the ability to project power far beyond its immediate sub-region.

Although Indian policymakers are understandably focused on domestic challenges and priorities, they nonetheless seem determined to raise India’s profile internationally. Addressing the Heads of Indian Missions in February 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi exhorted them to shed old mindsets and to “help India position itself in a leading role, rather than just a balancing force, globally.”[5] Delivering the 21st IISS Fullerton Lecture in Singapore five months later, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar reaffirmed the Indian government’s commitment to “shoulder greater responsibility,” adding that “India engages the world with greater confidence and assurance.”[6]

To be sure, India’s economic growth has been neither linear nor uniform. The country continues to face huge challenges on its path to prosperity and to becoming a “leading power.”[7] Alleviating poverty and hunger, and dealing with Pakistan are but two such challenges. Furthermore, Indian foreign policy has yet to break decisively from its Nehruvian moorings. Yet, India's accomplishments in the economic and military spheres are nonetheless impressive. And Indian diplomacy under the Modi government arguably has been more pragmatic, proactive and self-confident than ever.[8]   

The growth of India’s power and standing, and of its active diplomacy can be seen in its renewed focus on the Middle East (West Asia).[9] Acknowledging that India’s “footprint” in the region has been “relatively autonomous of strategic calculation,”[10] Indian policymakers recognize the need to develop a holistic engagement strategy, one that seeks both to strengthen economic ties and to institutionalize long-term security cooperation.

Against the backdrop of these developments, the essays in this series examine the geopolitical dimensions, economic ties, transnational networks, and other aspects of India's links with the Middle East (West Asia) — a region that plays a vital role in India's economy and its future.

March 7, 2017
India’s Relations with West Asia: A New Era Dawns
Ranjit Gupta
This essay, which launches the MAP series on India’s relations with the Middle East (West Asia), delineates the extraordinary transformation of India’s deeply fraught relations with the region into, arguably, India’s most satisfying set of external relationships.

March 9, 2017
Whither India-Gulf Strategic Ties?
N. Janardhan
This essay explores the future of India-Gulf ties in all spheres and some out-of-the-box security dynamics, especially the possibility of evolving an alternative security mechanism in the Gulf. It specifically highlights the opportunities and challenges for Asian countries, especially India, in the quest for a new collective security architecture and stability in the region.

March 14, 2017
An Indian Diplomatic Initiative to Promote West Asian Security
Talmiz Ahmad
This essay explores the rationale, modalities and prospects for a constructive diplomatic by China and India — two rising powers, both with significant equities in the region and no historical baggage — to help break this cycle.

March 16, 2017
Redefining the Drivers of India-G.C.C. Economic Relations
Girijesh Pant
Against the backdrop of the global geo-economic shift from West to East, India and its G.C.C. counterparts can, and should, seize the opportunity to recalibrate and reshape their economic relations. This essay discusses how the adoption of a value chain approach and its application to the healthcare high-tech digital service sectors.

March 21, 2017
India's Strategic Vision about West Asia and Its Limitations
Anwar Alam 
The discourse of Non-Alignment continues to shape the political culture of the Indian establishment’s strategic thinking in the field of foreign policy, notwithstanding the decline of Gandhian-Nehruvian moralism and increasing adaptation to the culture of power-centered realism in recent years. This essay shows that gradualism and risk avoidance remain deeply embedded features of India’s conduct of external relations, including its relations with West Asia.   

March 23, 2017
India and Egypt: Economic Reconstruction and Stabilization
Sameena Hameed
Six years after the fossilized authoritarian regime of Hosni Mubarak was swept from power by a tide of popular discontent, Egypt continues to face a multitude of economic and other challenges. This essay discusses the role that India has played, and could play in helping set Egypt’s economy on a more stable footing while broadening and deepening the bilateral relationship.

March 28, 2017
Enhancing India-Oman Economic Engagement: Four Promising Initiatives
Faisal Ahmed and Anurag Soni
India and Oman are maritime neighbors linked by history and culture. Muscat, the modern-day capital of Oman, has been a strategic nodal point of trade and exchange for centuries. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1953, India and the Sultanate of Oman have developed robust economic relations and people-to-people contacts. This article discusses four promising areas of cooperation that could drive the momentum of bilateral economic engagement. 

March 30, 2017
Locating Syria in India’s Diplomacy toward West Asia 
Tsupokyemla
India has sought to continue its five-decade long cordial relationship with Syria despite the conflict raging there, and has been providing muted support for Bashar al-Assad’s government. However, as the Syrian conflict has dragged on, it has become increasingly clear that the conflict in Syria is the epicenter of the tremors that are shaking the region, placing India’s own national interests at risk. This essay examines the arc of India’s policy toward the Syrian crisis, within the context of the broader thrust of Indian foreign policy toward West Asia under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

April 4, 2017
India-Israel at 25: Defense Ties
Nicolas Blarel
India has become Israel’s largest arms export market in the world over the last decade (replacing China); and Israel has become one of India’s largest arms supplier. Why did India develop a strong military partnership with a country it had ignored for 42 years? What can explain the development of defense ties in spite of limited political leadership involvement over the past decade? Finally, what are the prospects for defense relations as India grows to become one of the world’s largest defense importer? This essay answers these questions by providing an account of the evolution of Indo-Israeli defense cooperation over the past 25 years.

April 6, 2017
Protecting India’s interests in the Middle East: Militancy and Non-state Actors
Kabir Taneja
This essay discusses the threat that ISIS has posed to India, which has significant stakes in the Gulf but remains an ambivalent presence in the region. The future trajectory of the world’s largest democracy’s relations with the Middle East remains a grey area, but one that in the future, could become a defining relationship for global security.

April 11, 2017
‘Linking West’ in ‘Unsettled Times’: India-G.C.C. Trade Relations
John Calabrese
Economic and trade relations have been the most dynamic and significant component of the fundamental changes that have taken place in India's relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (G.C.C.) countries since the early 1990s. As a consequence, the Gulf has become of vital strategic importance for India in terms of energy security, trade, investment, and remittances. This essay discusses the contours of India’s trade relations with the G.C.C. countries, including the contributions they have made to India’s economic ascent and the scope for their further development.

April 25, 2017
India-Saudi Arabia Relations: New Bilateral Dynamics
Zakir Hussain 
This essay discusses the progressive development of India-Saudi Arabia relations. It looks first at the landmark visits that have laid the foundation and supplied the momentum for progress in the relationship. The essay focuses on five pillars of cooperation: trade and investment, energy relations, overseas employment, defense and security ties, and cultural interaction.

May 9, 2017
India's Balancing Act in the Gulf
Stanly Johny
This essay discusses India's increasingly extensive relations with the Gulf Arab countries and its equally important interest in continuing to develop mutually beneficial ties with Iran. The author argues that as India’s regional profile rises and its economic prowess expands, New Delhi will come under pressure to take sides — pressure to which Indian leaders must try their utmost not to succumb.

May 16, 2017
The India-U.A.E. Strategic Partnership in Regional Context: A Zero-Sum Game?
Mohammed Sinan Siyech
Since the government of Narendra Modi took office in 2014, India and the U.A.E. have moved relatively quickly to consolidate their existing ties and to explore new areas of cooperation. During this time, they have elevated the relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership, with the expressed intention of extending their cooperation to the security and defense spheres. This essay discusses these recent developments, with particular attention to the role of Pakistan as a constraining factor in India-U.A.E. relations going forward.

July 27, 2017
India's Middle Eastern Naval Diplomacy
Abhijit Singh
This essay examines India’s recent naval diplomatic forays in the Middle East within the broader context of its strategy to strengthen maritime cooperation across the Asian littorals. The essay describes the activities comprising India’s expanding naval operations in the Arabian Sea and maritime cooperation with the G.C.C. states and with Iran, and discusses the strategic imperatives that are driving these efforts, as well as the limits to India’s raising its security profile. 

September 26, 2017
Think West to Go West: Origins and Implications of India’s West Asia policy Under Modi (Part I)
Pramit Pal Chaudhuri
Prime Minister Modi’s 2015 visit to the U.A.E. and subsequent events have seen India’s view of the region undergo a fundamental shift. This essay, the first of two parts, shows how New Delhi has come to regard the Gulf more as a source of investment and less as a source of energy and visas; and has begun to take a more strategic and military view of the region.

October 24, 2017 
Think West to Go West: Origins and Implications of India’s West Asia Policy Under Modi (Part II)
Pramit Pal Chaudhuri
The first part of this article outlined how the newly-elected Narendra Modi government had no sense of where West Asia, including the Persian Gulf, fit into its larger foreign policy. However, this view changed radically following overtures from the Abu Dhabi royal family and the August 2015 state visit by Prime Minister Modi to the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). This second part details how, since that visit, India's relations with West Asia, and particularly with the Gulf monarchies and Iran, have evolved.

December 21, 2017
India-Gulf Counterterrorism Cooperation
Mohammed Sinan Siyech
India’s burgeoning economic relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have been accompanied by heightened security risks, including in the domain of terrorism. In light of these developments, this article addresses three questions: What is the nature and gravity of the transnational terrorist linkages that exist between India and Gulf Arab countries? What steps has India taken, in concert with its Gulf Arab partners, to counter the terrorist threat? And what more could be done to strengthen India-Gulf Arab counterterrorism (CT) cooperation?

March 13, 2018
Explaining India’s Position on Jerusalem and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Guy Burton
When President Donald Trump announced that the United States would move its embassy to Jerusalem on December 6, 2017, he effectively recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This essay examines India's response to this development, in the broader context of its evolving relationship with Israel and with the United States. 

September 6, 2018
India's Iran Quandary
Mohammed Sinan Siyech and Kanishka Raj Singh
India finds itself in a precarious situation. On one hand, Delhi does not want to antagonize the United States, with which it has developed a strong relationship over the past two decades. On the other hand, India has had a long-standing generally positive relationship with Iran that it is keen to maintain and in fact build upon. This essay examines the economic, domestic political, and international challenges that the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” approach poses for India.

December 4, 2018
Getting Qatar Ready for 2022: Reforms in Labor Immigration Policy and India's Options
Rhea Abraham
The estimated 650,000-700,000 Indian migrant workers in Qatar constitute the latter’s largest expatriate community and nearly double the number of native Qataris. Their positive contribution to the progress and development of their host country is well recognized. In recent years, however, Qatar’s handling of the rights and protections of migrant workers, a large portion of whom are unskilled Indian laborers employed in the construction sector in preparation for hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup has received a great deal of international media scrutiny and criticism. This article discusses the strides that Qatar has made in addressing these concerns and the steps India could undertake to spur further progress in ensuring that its migrant workers’ rights are protected.

April 9, 2019
India-Qatar Relations: Navigating Turbulent Seas
Mohammed Sinan Siyech
Examining India’s relations with Qatar provides a lens through which to illuminate Delhi’s goals and approach to West Asia at a time when the Gulf countries are mired in tensions and controversies.

July 23, 2019
Modi 2.0 and Returning Indian Migrants: The Case of Bahrain
Rhea Abraham
The Gulf Arab countries, once paradise for Indians, have been losing their charm as a result of the economic slowdown that followed the global financial crisis, the persistence of low oil prices, and the implementation of workforce nationalization measures. Bahrain is a case in point. Since 2013, the number of returning migrants to India from the Gulf has increased while the the number of Indians migrating to the Gulf has steadily decreased. Traditionally, the Indian government has responded to hardships and crises faced by Indian workers in Bahrain on a case-by-case basis. However, it is incumbent upon the Indian authorities to put in place a comprehensive approach to deal with the growing number of return migrants from Bahrain and from the Gulf as a whole.

August 6, 2019
India’s “Look West” Policy in the Middle East under Modi
Guy Burton
This article discusses the implications of Narendra Modi’s May 2019 election to a second term as prime minister and its implications for India’s foreign policy, especially regarding the Middle East. The article begins with a review of India’s strategy in the region, demonstrating that Modi has built on and intensified efforts begun under previous governments. The central argument is that Indian policy has benefited from the current state of international politics in the Middle East.

April 14, 2020
India-Gulf Migration: A Testing Time
John Calabrese
Since the 1970s “oil boom,” Indian migration to the Gulf has served as a valuable source of income for the nation and as the backbone of the economies of high-migration states such as Kerala through the transfer of remittances. However, the increasing international scrutiny and condemnation of the treatment of blue-collar and domestic expatriate workers in the region in recent years has cast India-Gulf migration in a far less favorable light and has prompted greater attention by the Government of India (GoI) to diaspora affairs and worker welfare issues. Yet, complaints received from and on behalf of migrant workers regarding various forms of abuse, exploitation, and hardship persist. Meanwhile, the outlow of Indian migrants to the region has slackened while return migration has increased due to economic slowdowns, fluctuating oil prices, and changes in Gulf labor policies. The future of India-Gulf migration is further clouded by the Coronavirus pandemic, which poses unprecedented health and livelihoods challenges for the millions of Indians working in the Gulf, as well as for the families and communities that depend on them — and presents a daunting test for the Indian government.

March 23, 2021
India-UAE Relations: Poised to Climb to New Heights
P.N. Khushnam
The relationship with United Arab Emirates (UAE) is at the core of an assertive Indian approach to the Gulf subsumed under the “Extended Neighborhood Policy.” Mutually reinforcing economic visions and compatible geopolitical outlooks have laid the basis for a more robust and promising partnership between India and the UAE.