India`s renewed West Asia focus |
The Persian Gulf, and West Asia as a whole, has been seen as holding a fatal attraction for Indian foreign policy. New Delhi has enormous stakes in the region. That Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the chief guest for the 68th Republic Day is proof of India`s growing ties with the United Arab Emirates, and, by extension, the Gulf region as a whole. The region is the country`s largest trade and investment partner, the primary source of oil and gas imports, all undergirded with a long-standing historical relationship. But it is also riven by mediaeval forms of tribal, ethnic and sectarian rivalries. The sort of instability and violence that regularly engulfs parts of this region serves as a warning to New Delhi which oversee a similar patchwork society. New Delhi encourages the export of labour and import of fossil fuels, but works hard to ensure that West Asia`s poisonous ideologies are not stowaways with the more benign cargo. This uneasy relationship is only further complicated by Pakistan, a country that actively imports the worst that West Asian minds produce — and adds some homegrown hatreds to the brew. Islamabad initially did so as a means to access the wealth of countries like Saudi Arabia. But part of its leadership has come to believe that radical Islam is actually the glue with which a Pakistani state can be assembled.
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