India Enhancing Ties With This Unlikely Country To Boost Presence in the Middle East
With Middle Eastern countries beginning to accept Bashar Assad’s control in Syria, India is leaving no stone unturned to renew its relations with Damascus.
While important Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the UAE are important for India to enhance its strategic influence over the region, other countries such as Syria will be important to emerge as the key players in the area.
Syria, a civil war-torn country, made its way back to the Arab League in May. Following this, India began to renew its ties with Middle Eastern countries.
In July, India made an official visit to Damascus, the capital of Syria, after 16 years. The last time an Indian official visited the country was in 2016. V. Muraleedharan, India’s Minister of State for External Affairs, met with Bashar Assad, the President of Syria. Among several key issues discussed with the Syrian President was the scholarship program for students. Muraleedharn announced 300 scholarships for Syrian students to study in India.
While it is true that Bashar Assad is being accepted by the Arab world once again, Syria has had its share of woe.
According to a report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), more than 230,000 civilians have been killed and another 14 million displaced till March 2023.
An article published on DW mentions the following:
“Assad’s regime was on the verge of collapse in 2015, before Russian intervention in the civil war allowed his forces to gain the upper hand against various rebel factions. His appearance at this year’s Arab League summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has been considered a sign that Arab countries are accepting that Assad will maintain his grip on power and want to normalize ties.”
In an interview with DW, Manjari Singh, an assistant professor at the Amity Institute of International Studies, said that India’s reengagement of Bashar Assad is a matter of timing.
“India did not take this move until major regional players such as the UAE, Bahrain, and most recently, Saudi Arabia in the Middle East took the initiative to reengage with Bashar Assad’s regime,” Singh mentioned.
“This has been India’s longtime policy in the region; it does not engage with countries, especially ones ostracized by the majority, unless the regional players warm up to that country,” she further added.
The cautious approach by India when it comes to establishing influence in the Middle East is commendable. India wants to develop a healthy trade and strategic relationship with countries in the Middle East but not at the cost of damaging any long-standing relations with the Gulf nations. The move by India to renew ties with Syria is a fantastic example of how India goes about business in the Middle East.
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