Leveraging Diplomacy in Gulf

Context: India has taken some proactive action in its diplomatic drive to reconcile multipolarity in India’s extended neighbourhood.

Key Elements of India’s Multipolar Diplomatic Drive in Gulf Region

• Proactive actions in Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman (where heads of state or government passed away recently): have given India an early start in engaging the new leadership
  • India observed a State mourning on the death of Amir of Kuwait, its head of state
• India is in a better position to do business with Iran as the new U.S administration can rejoin the multi-nation nuclear deal with Iran.
• Equally active on both sides of Gulf: India is only (apart from France, Germany and Japan) to attain diplomatic leverage in both sides of Gulf through following efforts (even US cannot and has not done so for 40 years)-
  • Hosted first Trilateral Working Group meeting with Iran and Uzbekistan (on the joint use of the Chabahar Port).
  • Revived bilateral joint commission with Tehran at a time when most countries fear U.S. wrath.
• End of nearly three-year-old fracture within Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): normal relations with Qatar have been restored mutually by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain.
• India’s stake in each of the GCC countries is beyond the large Indian communities.
  • Since mid-2017, India struggled to balance its interests in all four Gulf states torn apart by the break-in their relations.
  • Qatar hosts slightly more than seven lakh Indians and FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2022, will be played in a stadium built by Larsen and Toubro.
• Rehabilitation of Indian workers pre and post-Covid-19 scenario:
  • About 3.5 million Indians lived and worked in the UAE before the onset of the pandemic.
  • Evacuation flights ‘Vande Bharat’, became the biggest repatriation in the history of mankind.

Conclusion: A diplomatic drive to reconcile multipolarity in India’s extended neighbourhood will place India way ahead of its competitors for influence in the Gulf.