In diplomacy, there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies – all that matters is the national interest. And, even with a slight change in the global scenario, the relations between the two countries also change and this is exactly what can be inferred with India’s growing relations with the Arab World in the last few years.
From a block that regularly passed resolutions against India, the Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, has emerged as the best ally of India in the last few years. For the last few days, India is facing an acute shortage of oxygen, and Saudi Arabia was among the first countries to jump in to supply oxygen to the country facing crisis. “The embassy of India is proud to partner with the Adani group and M/s Linde in shipping much-needed 80MT liquid oxygen to India. Our heartfelt thanks to the Ministry of Health Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for all their help, support, and cooperation,” the Indian mission in Riyadh tweeted.
Moreover, a few days ago, Saudi Arabia decided to include Ramayana and Mahabharata as part of Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s new vision for the education sector in Saudi Arabia, Vision 2030.
As per a tweet by Nouf-al-Marwai, “Saudi Arabia’s new vision-2030 and syllabus will help build a future that is inclusive, liberal, and tolerant. “The Twitter user also shared a screenshot of his son’s syllabus, which contained a wide array of cultures.
“The screenshot of my son’s school exam today in the book of social studies includes concepts and history of Hinduism, Buddhism, Ramayana, Karma, Mahabharata, and Dharma. I enjoyed helping her study,” she added in her tweet.
India and Saudi Arabia are also increasing military cooperation. During the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2019, The two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding on defence industries collaboration and an agreement on security cooperation. Both sides are also exploring the possibility of holding bilateral military exercises. Last year, Army chief General M M Naravane visited Saudi Arabia to explore the possibilities of future defence ties.
India is also planning to sell defence equipment to Saudi Arabia in the coming years. The Saudi government is interested in buying small arms, military vehicles, and radars from India. Indian companies- Ashok Leyland, Bharat Forge and Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) participated in the recent JCDC meeting to discuss defence exports to the United States. “The Saudi have found traction in what India is manufacturing and what they want to buy,” said an official. Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest arms importer and access to its market would immensely help India’s nascent arms industry.
The growing economic ties between India and the Arab world — Saudi Arabia, for instance, is India’s fourth-largest trading partner and supplies about 18 per cent of India’s crude requirement and around 30 per cent of its LPG needs – and the large presence of the Indian diaspora in the Middle East have been key factors driving the dynamic relationship for decades.
Keeping all these recent developments in mind, one can foresee that if India does indeed continues to uphold formal military ties with Saudi Arabia then Pakistan would be having sleepless nights, and its neo-colonial master China would not be able to do anything about it.
Saudi Arabia’s eagerness to help India in a time of need shows that the Mohammed Bin Salman led Kingdom is interested in keeping long-term ties with India, and it sees New Delhi as the dominant power in the Arabic Ocean region. Saudi Arabia knows very well that its ínterests’will be best served by keeping India on its side, and therefore, MBS, who has emerged as among the finest practitioners of ‘realpolitik’ among the global leaders, is interested in securing the trust and confidence of India.