Balancing act: India engages with Saudi Arabia and Iran.

NEW DELHI: The overlapping visits by crown prince of Saudi Arabia Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif this week will highlight the delicate balancing act that India is doing in this region.

Prince Salman, who doubles up as the Kingdom's defence minister, will ostensibly return defence minister AK Antony's visit which put defence and security relations on a higher plane with a country India has never been comfortable with.

India and Saudi Arabia have just completed negotiations on a defence cooperation agreement, which is likely to be signed during this visit. The agreement, according to official sources, will cover military training and defence exchanges besides enhanced security cooperation.

Prince Salman comes in after visiting Pakistan during which the two countries signed a defence cooperation agreement in the backdrop of Nawaz Sharif government's decision to back the Saudi position on Syria, i.e. to actively work for the overthrow of Bashar al Assad. Sharif has made no secret of his desire to build closer relations with Saudi Arabia, throwing Pakistan headlong into the deep sectarian conflict engulfing the Middle East.

It means Pakistani fighters or trainers could be used to beef up Assad's opponents while Islamabad could even export weapons to Syria. The Pak-Saudi joint statement supported the "formation of transitional governing body with full executive powers enabling it to take charge of the affairs of (Syria)", signaling active Pakistani participation in the Syrian conflict.

In return, Pakistan is looking at greater Saudi political and economic investment in Pakistan. Pakistan also expects Saudi Arabia to provide more military assistance.

Saudi Arabia is the fulcrum of India's new "Look Middle East" policy — economic/strategic outreach to a region with which India as over $180 billion of trade, source of 60 per cent of India's energy supplies and home to 7 million Indians with massive remittances.

In December, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid presided over a meeting of heads of mission from this region in Manama, where MEA gave this initiative shape and direction. For the first time, the foreign office is trying to look at the region the way it looks at itself— not as West Asia, or the Gulf, but as Middle East.

India's outreach to the Middle East also comes at a time when Arab states are balancing their international relations, after having spent decades under the US umbrella. China, Russia and India are emerging as the alternative powers for the Arabs who appear to be particularly spooked by three things — US' declining energy dependence, US disinterest in Syria and US' potential toleration of a nuclear-capable Iran.

The Saudi-Pakistani defence relationship also has a more important nuclear dimension — any nuclear deal with Iran will necessarily leave it with some nuclear capability. That very prospect would be a catalyst for what is seen as a burgeoning Saudi-Pakistan nuclear relationship. Many believe this could involve Saudi Arabia importing technology and equipment from Pakistan. Pakistan is playing what Indian strategists consider to be dangerous game. It could give Pakistan's army, smarting under US neglect, a fresh lease of life. That is bad news for India and Afghanistan in a year when US troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan.

Just as India will be balancing its ties with Saudi Arabia and Iran, Saudi Arabia too has a hard balancing act to follow — between India and Pakistan.

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com