India recalibrates its position as regional trouble intensifies

As India strengthens its relations with Israel, its foreign policy faces conflicting choices in the Middle East, writes Harsh V Pant

There have been strong reactions in India about Israel’s actions in Gaza. The Indian parliament has been vociferous in its condemnation. Calling for suspension of military purchases from Israel, an Indian parliamentarian suggested that “India cannot be a party to this genocide”. Demanding that the parliament pass a resolution condemning the attacks, the leader of the opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad attacked the government saying it was regrettable that New Delhi did not raise its voice against the “massacre”.

Couched in the humanitarian concern for the plight of Gaza residents, the opposition did its best to insinuate that because of the BJP government, religious motives cannot be far behind.

In her reply, Sushma Swaraj, the external affairs minister, reminded her opposition colleagues that India's relations with Palestine and Israel are a legacy of previous governments, including the Congress-led UPA government. A day later, however, India along with Brics countries voted in support of a UN Human Rights Council resolution to launch an investigation into Israel's offensive on Gaza.

Despite Congress’s breast-beating, the reality remains that there has been a steady strengthening of India’s relationship with Israel ever since the two established full diplomatic relations in 1992. In contrast to the back-channel security ties that existed before the normalisation of bilateral relations, India has been more willing in recent years to carve out a mutually beneficial relationship with Israel, including deepening military ties and countering terrorism.

Before 1992, India had made the normalisation of relations with Israel contingent upon the resolution of the Palestinian issue. In 1992, India decided to delink the two, making it clear that it was not ready to make an independent Palestinian state a precondition for improving its relations with Israel.

Over the years, the government has also toned down its reactions to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. India is no longer initiating anti-Israel resolutions at the UN and has made serious attempts to moderate the non-aligned movement’s anti-Israel resolutions.

This re-evaluation has been based on a realisation that India’s largely pro-Arab stance in the Middle East has not been adequately rewarded. India has received no worthwhile backing from the Middle East in the resolution of problems it faces in its neighbourhood.

On the contrary, the Arab countries have firmly stood by Pakistan, using the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to build support for Islamabad. If countries such as Jordan have been able to keep their traditional ties with Palestine intact while building a new relationship with Israel, there is no reason for India not to take a similar route, which might give it more room for diplomatic manoeuvring.

Keeping wider strategic interests in perspective, successive governments since the early 1990s have walked a nuanced line between expressing genuine concern for the Palestinian cause and expanding India’s commercial and defence ties with Israel.

The domestic political milieu continues to exert its substantial influence on the trajectory of India-Israel relations. Israel has been a good friend of India, but New Delhi continues to be shy of demonstrating its friendship.

At crucial times, when it needed Israeli help, it got it unreservedly. For instance, Israel was willing to continue and even step up its arms sales to India after other major states curbed their technological exports following India’s May 1998 nuclear tests.

Yet, there are differences of perception between India and Israel on the issue of terrorism. While for India, Pakistan is the epicentre of terrorism, Israel reserves that status for Iran. Israel might be sympathetic to Indian concerns regarding Pakistan, but it is not ready to make new enemies. Israel would not like to undermine the possibility of Pakistan normalising its relations with Israel at some future date.

Indian foreign policy faces conflicting choices in the Middle East, and India’s ties with Israel will remain a function of its relationship with other states in the region.

There are no easy policy choices to be made in the region, but the conflicting imperative of continuing to strengthen its ties with Israel while at the same time courting other states in the region, especially Iran, will be a tough task for Indian diplomacy.

And this is what got reflected in the most recent debate in the Indian parliament on Israel as well as in India’s decision to vote against Israel at the UN Human Rights Council.

Harsh V Pant is a professor of International Relations at King’s College London