Prevailing oil politics in West Asia and concerns for India

Given its close historical proximity and acceptability in the region, India will have to come up with a more holistic approach. Once again, India needs to adopt a more Idealistic and principled approach as propagated by Late Pt. Nehru and Indira Gandhi, and cooperate with regional actors to help establish peace, security and stability of the region. As the project of creating second Kuwait City has already commenced with the building of an expressway to be followed by a super railway link in 2015, this opens a great opportunity for India to invest and participate in this project.

With respect to India-GCC economic ties, the trade with the region is dominated by the UAE (50 per cent) and Saudi Arabia (25 per cent). Therefore, portfolios need to be diversified to build trade volumes with other countries as well. It is also important that India leverages its expertise in the knowledge services sector. Also, the potential for creation of a regional supply chain with reference to the convergence in food economy between India and the Gulf states need to be explored. A collective Asian approach towards GCC countries was suggested which could include China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia, for sustainable security architecture for this region.

Conclusion

India is perceived by the regional countries of West Asia as an emerging global power with rising stature. That the countries of the region regard India quite well for overall peace and security is clearly indicated from a paper published by the UAE's Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) describing India as "a non-aggressive power." Hence, in an attempt to address the new challenges which are still unfolding, India needs to revisit its policy towards the strategically important region. The new approach could explore the possibility of looking at the region beyond its energy needs. This can be done by developing stronger bilateral engagements followed by cooperation at regional level.