A lightening visit to New Delhi this week by Abdel Elah Mohammed Khatib, the Jordanian foreign minister, underscored an effort on the part of the Indian government to strengthen contacts with Arab and other Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The move possibly aims to smooth over criticism from the region of its increasingly close relations with Israel.
Khatib touched down in the Indian capital for little more than 24 hours, but during that time managed to sign an agreement for consultations between the two foreign offices; hold talks with the Confederation of Indian Industry, and meet with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Vice President Krishan Kant and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh.
Khatib’s visit was only one of a flurry of contacts involving India and the Middle East. A week earlier the foreign minister of Tunisia visited New Delhi, and a week before that the vice president of Iraq was in India offering an attractive oil deal, apparently in contradiction of UN sanctions against Baghdad. Several days earlier, a delegation from Iran was in the country to discuss the options for a natural gas pipeline from the Persian Gulf to the Indian subcontinent. Next month, Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Boutefleka will be in New Delhi as the chief guest of India’s Republic Day celebrations.
India’s external affairs minister has also been on the road, touring the Middle East region. Several weeks back he was in Morocco and Algeria, and he will be traveling to Saudi Arabia ¯ the first ever visit by an Indian foreign minister to that country. Singh is scheduled to go to Egypt in February and a trip to Turkey is also planned.
Commenting on this activity, The Hindi suggests that India’s effort to maintain both a dialog and a healthy trade level with the Middle eastern countries in part generated by its need to counterbalance its close ties with Israel, with whom it established full diplomatic relations in 1992.
The newspaper points out that there still are those on the left of the political spectrum who argue that India should have never relinquished its policy of rejecting Israel. There are also those on the right who see Israel is a natural ally. For its part, the paper noted, the Indian government chose to tread a cautious middle path.
In its editorial, The Hindi expressed support for the current Indian government policy. There is no way for India to return to the simplistic rejection of Israel, the newspaper said. But at the same time, it continued, a sensible foreign policy in New Delhi cannot ignore the enormous political, economic and strategic stakes that India has elsewhere in the Middle East. ¯ (Albawaba-MEBG)
