Indo-Gulf cooperation: An option or a must?

16 December 2011, 18:00 PM

Mona El Hamdani

WN.COM

IT is a fact: India's booming economy and population will result in a substantial increase in its needs in terms of energy resources and global partners. Many countries around the globe are recognising India's rising power and are working to strengthen their economic, political and social ties with her. Partnering with India has been increasingly getting presence in the agendas of many Arab states especially the Gulf countries, but not as a priority. In spite of this increasing awareness of the importance of India as a strong future ally and partner, Arab states are still not fully engaging India through building strong and reliable relations especially on the front of public diplomacy. The current efforts mainly revolve around trying to agree on and sign bilateral trade and energy agreements. Diplomacy between the Gulf countries and India has remained at the government to government level, not really reaching the public. A few cooperation agreements have been signed between Arab states and India, while many others are still undergoing slow negotiations. The GCC countries (Gulf Cooperation Council) signed in 2004 an initial framework agreement with India in order to advance multilateral relations. This framework led the two parties to enter negotiations around signing a FTA (Free Trade Agreement) that would open the door to more significant cooperation opportunities. Negotiations around the FTA have not been going well because of disagreements between India and the GCC countries around including petroleum products in the negative list of FTA. This agreement opportunity has been met by a lot of pessimism and predictions of failure, as the disagreement between the FTA parties has been described to be irreconcilable. However, this disagreement does not mean the end of the negotiations as much as going through them on a much slower fashion. This will eventually impact other public diplomacy efforts, pushing them aside until differences are reconciled. On another front of cooperation, in a rare move in 2006, King Abdullah Ben Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia conducted a four-day visit to India to strengthen bilateral ties. The Saudi King and the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed two major agreements. The first agreement was on providing India with a "stable and increased" supply of crude oil; the second agreement was on improving cooperation between the two nations to combat terrorism. Both parties described the visit as "a new era in India-Saudi Arabia relations and a landmark in the development of increased understanding and cooperation between the two." This visit has in fact benefited the economy of both countries and increased their export and import rates. However, it did not mean very much to the average citizen in India or Saudi Arabia. It remained just one of many official visits they hear about in the media, without feeling its real impact on their daily lives. The follow up to the Saudi King visit came a bit late. It was not until 2010 that the Indian Prime Minister visited Saudi Arabia. The three-day visit was described as historic since it was the first of this magnitude since the visit of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1982. The main goal of this tour was to boost India-Saudi cooperation efforts to a higher level, especially in the field of energy. Eight agreements were signed during this visit in the fields of energy, science and technology and extradition. Manmohan Singh stated that "I am conscious of the fact that this will be only the third visit by an Indian prime minister to Saudi Arabia. My visit reflects the strong mutual desire of both countries to reinvigorate our relations, as manifested in King Abdullah's historic visit to India in 2006 as the chief guest at the Indian Republic Day (…) India and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have enjoyed special relations based on several millennia of civilizational and cultural linkages and people-to-people exchanges." Religion has been one of the major connections between India and Saudi Arabia; for instance, every year around 140 000 Indians visit Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage. Developing strong and sustainable relations with India should not be considered by Arab states as an option, but as a must. India's regional and global role is changing and growing very rapidly and its say in global matters is becoming more significant. For instance, India is one of the major nuclear powers in the world and in the region, and it has the third largest armed forces in the world. It is the ninth largest world economy and it is a member of the G20 and the BRICS. Therefore, Arab states should seize the opportunity and engage India more aggressively to boost and build relations based on cooperation, mutual respect and friendship. There are many fields that can be explored by both Arab states and India to improve their current relations. In addition to trade agreements, the two parties should consider other public diplomacy venues to develop substantial social and cultural exchanges and boost larger people-to-people relations. Cultural public diplomacy is one the promising venues through which the Arab states and India can develop more relations. Activities can be organised around religious dialogue, student exchanges and other cultural and educational issues that would bring both states and people closer together. The writer is a Fulbright scholar, Masters of Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California.