A New QUAD In West Asia

Context: The first meeting between foreign ministers of India, Israel, UAE and US suggests that India is now ready to move from bilateral relations conducted in separate silos towards an integrated regional policy.

Significance of four-way tie up between India, Israel, UAE and US

• Furthering non-ideological engagements in Middle East: A process that began with India establishing full diplomatic relations with Israel three decades ago.
  • Abraham Accords (Arab-Israeli peace deal) began new phase in political engagements in Middle East, facilitating accelerated economic and technological cooperation between Israel and UAE.
• Towards an integrated regional policy: India is now ready to move from bilateral relations conducted in separate silos towards an integrated regional policy inline with developments in Indo-Pacific.
• Pragmatism and re-imagination in foreign policy: Thinking of the US as a partner in the Middle East is part of the reimagination of foreign policy engagements in Middle East.
  • Marks the shift from viewing US/West as a part of problem in Middle East to an active partner although US wants to downsize its expansive role in Middle East, that developed since 1970s.
  • This provides a sensible template to pursue wide-ranging mini-lateral partnerships in the region.
  • Finding new voices in shifting political geographies: Emergence of Eastern Mediterranean as a geopolitical entity connecting a number of countries, including Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine.
• Wide prospects for future collaborations: Beyond trade, there is potential for India, UAE and Israel to collaborate on many areas — from semiconductor design and fabrication to space technology.
  • Success on trilateral front will open the door for extending collaboration with other common regional partners like Egypt, who will lend great strategic depth to the Indo-Abrahamic accords.

Conclusion: India has many old and new partners in the region and it can now work with them in multiple formats and overlapping combinations. Meanwhile, there is much to be done in realising the full potential of the “Indo-Abrahamic Accords”.