India, GCC can offer the ‘healing touch’ the region needs

Over the last decade, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has personally imparted an unprecedented substance and dynamism to ties with the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. This has been achieved through regular high-level interactions with regional leaders, establishment of new platforms for dialogue and monitoring of agreements, and promoting multilateral alignments to enhance economic ties and logistical connectivity.
With his visit to Kuwait in December, Modi has now visited every GCC member state. The two sides have made up for lost time with a comprehensive strategic partnership that encompasses defense cooperation, infrastructure development and technology transfer.
India’s ties with the GCC have traditionally been anchored on energy, trade, investment and joint ventures, and the presence of the Indian community. India-GCC bilateral trade is about 16 percent of India’s global trade, far ahead of its trade with the EU; the UAE and Saudi Arabia are its third and fourth-largest trade partners. The GCC meets over 50 percent of India’s oil needs, with Qatar being its principal gas supplier. Countries such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar are major investors in India’s infrastructure and energy projects.
The Indian community, numbering nearly 9 million, remains the largest expatriate group in every country of the GCC. The community has a presence across the entire economic gamut of every GCC country, from business tycoons to professionals to blue-collar workers. Indian enterprises in the GCC countries are valued at several billion dollars and employ millions of GCC citizens.
India has also broadened its regional horizons by associating itself with extra-regional cooperation initiatives, such as the I2U2, that brings together the US, Israel, the UAE, and India, and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor that envisages logistical connectivity from India to the Arabian Peninsula and from there to Europe.
Reflecting the high level of mutual trust and substantial strategic convergence, India and the GCC have made considerable progress in security and defense cooperation, including India’s joint naval and army exercises with the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. India is also part of a trilateral India-France-UAE defense partnership, with the three countries engaging in maritime exercises in 2023 and an air force exercise in 2024.
On the basis of these diverse bilateral engagements, India and the GCC have recently institutionalized dialogue between India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar and the foreign ministers of the GCC countries. The first India-GCC Joint Ministerial Meeting for Strategic Dialogue took place in Riyadh in September last year. At this conclave, the Indian minister described the GCC as India’s “extended neighborhood” and affirmed that the partnership would be founded on “three Ps” — people, prosperity and progress.

India has supported Palestinian aspirations for a sovereign state for several decades.

Talmiz Ahmad

The dialogue concluded with a four-year joint action plan that prioritized security cooperation in the areas of defense, industrial collaboration, and military exercises. The conclave also identified other areas of crucial importance for cooperation, such as food and energy security, strategic trade routes and maritime security, and cybersecurity.
This joint action plan has emerged just six months after the GCC, for the first time in its 43-year history, has set out a shared strategic vision for regional stability founded on the “shared destiny” and “indivisible security” of its members.
The GCC vision has a common understanding of matters that impinge on regional stability which include economic development, the environment, stability of global energy markets, besides challenges relating to terrorism and extremism, maritime security, and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The vision envisages joint efforts by the bloc to pursue dispute resolution through diplomacy.
This sense of mutual understanding and camaraderie among GCC members was recently evident in the communique of the 45th GCC Summit that took place in Kuwait in December. The assembled heads of state took a tough position against the killing and destruction perpetrated by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, and affirmed their support for Palestinian sovereignty over the occupied territories and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
It is true that earlier, GCC members had on their own been playing an active role in promoting regional stability as mediators in major conflict situations, such as Oman’s role in facilitating US-Iran discussions; Qatar’s recent crucial role in handling the Israel-Hamas divide; the Saudi role in the Sudan conflict, and the UAE’s role in facilitating prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine. The GCC is now looking at making a joint effort to address regional security challenges, in association with appropriate international partners.
This opens a new opportunity for India-GCC cooperation. Given the substantial ties in the security area that have emerged between India and the GCC, India can now work closely with the GCC states to address regional security concerns. It is well-equipped for this challenge. Its millennia-old civilizational ties with the region have created a high level of cultural comfort and mutual respect. India also has crucial and abiding interests in regional stability and has cultivated the closest possible relations with the diverse states in the region, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Iran, and Israel.
Above all, India has supported Palestinian aspirations for a sovereign state for several decades, and has excellent credentials to support the GCC’s commitment to realize these aspirations after the horrendous blood-letting the region has seen in recent months.
In association with its GCC partners, India can provide the healing touch that the Middle East desperately needs.

— Talmiz Ahmad is a former Indian diplomat.