Why in News:
- The meeting of the Foreign Ministers of India, the U.S.A., Israel and the U.A.E. took place virtually. It’s a strong manifestation of the changes in West Asian geopolitics.
The Motive:
India, U.S., Israel and U.A.E have decided to form a forum for future economic cooperation. They also decided to explore possibilities of joint infrastructure in the fields of:
- Transportation
- Technology
- Maritime security
- Economics
- Trade
- Fighting climate change
India’s West Asia Policy:
In the past, India divided it’s West Asia Policy in 3 parts:
- The Sunni Gulf monarchies
- Israel
- Iran
The Facilitator:
- The Abraham Accords have helped in narrowing down the gulf between Israel and other Sunni Gulf monarchies.
India’s Approach:
- This four nation meeting points to India’s strategic desire to adopt a regional foreign policy strategy towards West Asia, transcending its bilateralism.
Indian trade: -
- In the financial year 2020-21, India’s imports from UAE were $ 26.6 billion and exports were $ 16.6 billion. Imports from the United States were $28.8 billion and exports were $51.6 billion. Imports from Israel were $1.96 billion and exports were $2.7 billion. The United Arab Emirates and the United States of America are important trading partners of India, while Israel is India’s important defence partner.
Caution for India:
- India should be careful that it does not get sucked into the many conflicts of West Asia. These conflicts may get intensified among growing regional rivalries.
Benefits for India:-
Benefits of this second Quad can be immense for India.
- It ties India into another alliance with the US, which is imperative to counter China’s belligerence.
- India already has a lot of soft power in the Middle East combined with a huge Indian diaspora of nearly 8 million. However, hitherto it was reluctant to officially join alliances given regional political complexities. But with the US reorienting its focus to the Indo-Pacific and powerful Arab states viewing Israel in a new light, the time is right for India to step up. In fact, the Middle East is already an important foreign market for Indian exporters, which can grow further given the region’s youth-dominated demography.
- With Israel’s high-tech economy and the Gulf Arab nations’ bid to diversify away from oil, there is much that can be done in Big Data, AI, quantum computing and other technologies of the future.
