Opinion: India Has Got The Balance Right In West Asia
In the Israel-Iran fight to the brink of cataclysm, neutrality is not a byword for indecisiveness
Is not picking a side also counted as taking a stand? Diplomatic mandarins in New Delhi certainly think so. That's why they have goaded Prime Minister Narendra Modi to say nothing more than call for 'de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy" after U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to step into the Israel-Iran war.
Beyond the ionic column-lined corridors of their fief in Raisina Hill, the government's foreign policy wonks are having a terrible time convincing India's irate Opposition that India's neutrality is not a moral compromise. That in the Israel-Iran fight to the brink of cataclysm, neutrality is not a byword for indecisiveness.
The Congress party should know better. It pioneered the art of sitting on the fence when it institutionalised Non-Alignment during the Cold War years. The doctrine was simple – India must not be drawn into any one camp. If strategic autonomy was considered a tactical virtue to navigate a bipolar Cold War world then it should be considered a sacrosanct precept in today's fluid multipolar world.
Indeed, the global tectonic plates of entente and détente straddle the most fluctuous diplomatic terrain in recent history. Nowhere is this slipperiness more apparent than in West Asia. Here, Iran's own neighbors – sworn to Islamic solidarity – aren't ready to give it unconditional support. In fact, they have, it could be argued, betrayed Iran.
Consider the facts.
Lebanon has blocked the depleted Iranian jihadist proxy Hezbollah from acting against Israel.
Syria's current potentate Ahmed Al-Sharaa, after toppling the pro-Iran Assad regime, has been negotiating a peace deal to recognise Israel. Jordan directly intercepts Iranian missiles. The Saudis provided key intelligence against Iran and overflight rights to U.S. warplanes. And last but by no means the least, Pakistan, in the ultimate show of doctrinal elasticity, recommended Trump for Nobel Prize and offered the U.S. use of airbase and actionable intelligence.
The only reason for listing this litany of betrayals is to demonstrate that in a landscape pockmarked by chicanery, not picking a side is not an abdication. It is strategic self-preservation. And in diplomacy, that, too, can be an elevated position.
About the Author
Rahul Shivshankar
Rahul Shivshankar is Consulting Editor at Network18. He tweets at @RShivshankar
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