A Glance at India’s Relations with the Zionist Regime

Following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the bipolar world system, many country leaders and politicians were trying to take advantage of changes in international system to meet the national interests of their respective countries. In doing this, they meant to adapt their countries with new global trends and agendas resulting from new changes, while at the same time, maintaining their basic principles and protecting their national interests. India was a prominent example in the field of revising its past agendas and adapting them to new global trends followed by diversification of the country’s foreign relations.

Of course, India’s efforts to diversify its relations with various power poles across the world may seem to be remarkable, but the background of such efforts by India goes back to the era of the Cold War. At that time, India had close relations with Moscow, as one of the two main power poles in the global system, and was considered as an ally of the former Soviet Union. However, it was also a major party to the establishment and creation of the Non-Aligned Movement as an independent power bloc.

Following the end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union, which was a main source of support for India at that time, New Delhi leaders decided to make major changes to their foreign policy agenda in order to meet their national interests under new conditions. While maintaining relations with Russia, as heir apparent to the Soviet Union, India has taken steps to expand its relations with the European Union in economic and trade fields and has recently earned a special position in the political and security strategy of the United States in the South Asia region as well. Revision of relations with new power poles at global level and redefining itself within framework of the policy of big powers has given India a degree of self-confidence to play its role in neighboring regions while establishing solid relations with the West Asia countries in recent years. At a result, India has managed to develop its relations with some political actors in this region, some of which are regional rivals of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and has expanded its relations with them into more diversified fields.

The Zionist regime of Israel is one of Iran's rivals in the West Asia region with which India has been expanding relations. During the past few months, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited the occupied territories, and his trip has been reciprocated by a visit to New Delhi by the prime minister of the Zionist regime. At the present time, 25 years have passed since India first launched diplomatic relations with Israel. The question is what factor(s) have prompted India and Tel Aviv to get closer?

One of the main dimensions and aspects of relations between these two is the military dimension. In fact, military relations are the frontline of relations between New Delhi and Tel Aviv. During recent years, India has made efforts to renovate its armed forces and equip them with the most modern weapons and equipment in order to be ready to face any threat both on land and in sea. As a result, India has decided to buy modern military equipment from countries other than Russia, which has been traditionally supporting India in this regard. According to a study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the Zionist regime is now the third biggest supplier of arms to India after Russia and the United States and India is the biggest customer of Israel’s defense industries. According to the latest reports, about 41 percent of defense equipment produced by Tel Aviv has been destined for New Delhi. Of course, territorial threats and challenges, which have always existed between India and its neighbors like China and Pakistan, have played a role in prompting New Delhi to renovate its military equipment and purchase more weapons. However, at the present time, this country plays a major role in meeting security interests of the United States in the South Asia region on the basis of Washington’s national security strategy for Afghanistan. This issue provides even more ground for future military cooperation between New Delhi and Tel Aviv.

Another key driving force in this regard is a series of political variables in India itself. After its independence and when it got rid of the British colonialism and at the beginning of the Cold War India considered the establishment of a Zionist entity in the occupied Palestinian territories as a legacy of colonialism and always supported the establishment of a Palestinian state. However, as time went by and due to certain acute security developments in the neighborhood of the country, including sectarian conflicts between India and Pakistan and emergence of territorial threats resulting from those conflicts, the Zionist regime got involved in these conflicts and further exacerbated sectarian divisions in this region. In fact, the security conditions that governed the Indian Subcontinent due to rising tensions among Islamic societies caused the leaders of India as well as its domestic elites to think about ways of protecting themselves in the face of the forthcoming security threats in any way possible. Unfortunately, this state of affairs prompted the Zionist regime to adopt an opportunist policy in order to take advantage of these differences in line with its own interests and get closer to India than any time before.

 

Conclusion 

In short, it must be noted that the current course taken by India with regard to the Zionist regime and relations with that regime has been a developing course in recent years. However, due to some considerations, Indian leaders have been trying to remain cautious and follow a balanced approach in their foreign policy. For example, India needs Iran in order to play a role in Afghanistan and Central Asia through development of Iran's Chabahar port and completion of the North-South Transport Corridor. This need will cause India to take these considerations into account when developing relations with regional rivals of the Islamic Republic of Iran, because getting too close to these rivals and not taking Iran's security and economic interests seriously would prompt the Islamic Republic of Iran to get close to India’s regional rivals, including China and Pakistan.

On the other hand, the Islamic Republic of Iran can make an effort to activate true potentialities of such institutions as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Non-Aligned Movement. These institutions would be able to meet security needs of India and help the fight against terrorism and extremism as a result of which the way would be paved for more dialogue and confidence building between India and Pakistan. It is a reality that Islamic countries do not play a serious role in resolving sectarian skirmishes in the Indian Subcontinent and some of them have appeared quite passive in dealing with the phenomenon of extremism. As a result, the Zionist regime, which is the epitome of state terrorism, has been able to established close relations with India under the pretext of fighting against terrorism. In doing so, the Zionist regime has also used these relations in line with its regional plots against Muslim nations in order to deepen the existing gaps and differences among them.

 

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