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INDIA'S STRATEGIC TILT ON ISRAEL
By SIDDHARTH SRIVASTAVA / New Delhi
Stung by what India considers a hardening of stance within the
political spectrum in Washington on transfer of nuclear technology to India,
New Delhi is reaching out to Israel. The move comes when a firm belief has
taken seed that Pakistan, at the instance of President Pervez Musharraf, is
reaching out to the powerful American-Jewish lobby to stymie Indian efforts
to build bridges with US, especially in granting access to civilian nuclear
sources of energy. There has been pressure on New Delhi which has been
accused of "twiddling its thumbs while Pakistan seizes the moment" with
Israel.
Though there has been a big jump in defense relations between India and
Israel in the recent past with the country emerging as the single largest
supplier of arms to India, it is in the political forums, in US and
elsewhere that New Delhi is looking for backing from Tel Aviv. Several US
voices in the recent past have expressed misgivings over India's efforts so
far in separating civilian and military nuclear facilities, a stiff
condition before progress can be made on the expansive nuclear deal signed
between India and US in July this year. India also sees Pakistan's designs
in this matter.
The famous September 1 handshake between Pakistan Foreign Minister Kursheed
Kasuri with his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom at Istanbul has made New
Delhi doubly suspicious. A rescue team from Israel was allowed by Islamabad
to fly in following the October 8 earthquake that devastated Pakistan
Kashmir. Apart from keeping of the right side of Washington, Pakistan's
decision to engage Tel Aviv has been in response to the Jewish state's
pullout from the Gaza Strip after 38 years of occupation though Musharraf
faces stiff opposition from radical Islamic groups at home.
A comment following the Pakistan-Israel engagement reads: ``While Pakistan's
move to befriend Israel is likely to further consolidate its relations with
the United States, it will create complications in its ties with the Arab
world, produce domestic difficulties, and generate pressures within India to
outmaneuver Pakistan by deepening New Delhi's already close relations with
Israel.''
Indeed, as a response to Islamabad's overtures, there have been several
efforts by New Delhi to build strategic depth in relations with Israel.
Despite being close to both Tehran and Tel Aviv, New Delhi has stood by
Israel and has recently supported it against Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's comment that the Jewish nation should be ``wiped off the world
map.'' Iran refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and supports
Palestinian militant groups such as the Islamic Jihad.
While the Indo-Israel joint working group (JWG) on defense cooperation meets
later this month, New Delhi after some amount of lobbying has revived the
strategic dialogue between the two countries' National Security Advisors
(NSA) after a four-year gap. Israel's NSA Giora Eiland is scheduled to
arrive in New Delhi next month for talks with his counterpart M K Narayanan.
Among the issues that are likely to be discussed include Iran's nuclear
problems, Islamic fundamentalism, US-India relations, the depth of Tel
Aviv's involvement with Islamabad and counter terrorism, insurgency and
infiltration exercises along the Indo-Pakistan and India-Bangladesh borders.
Prior to Eiland's visit India will host Israeli defense secretary Yaakov
Toran, who arrives for the JWG on military cooperation. Defense minister
Pranab Mukherjee is expected to visit Israel soon, most probably after the
high-profile visits to India of US President George W Bush and the French
premiere Jacques Chirac.
Earlier this year, Israel's points man for the Gaza disengagement process
paid a quiet visit to India and conveyed Tel Aviv's commitment to the
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. A retired major general, Gilad is seen as
extremely close to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In order to ensure
that India is kept abreast of developments, he took time out to visit New
Delhi despite being involved in ongoing negotiations. Indian officials have
pointed out that it was the first time a top Israeli official had come to
New Delhi to explain the withdrawal process even though the Manmohan Singh
government has downplayed ties with Tel Aviv owing to Left opposition.
According to reports, there are also efforts by New Delhi impress upon Tel
Aviv not to export any military hardware to Islamabad, especially in the
wake of US opening its arms supplies to Pakistan. What makes the efforts by
New Delhi significant is that they have been in the face of criticisms by
Left coalition partners that want the government to espouse the Palestine
cause and see engagement with Tel Aviv as negating this stand.
Of course the need to Israel and India to engage has also been prompted by
the burgeoning trade relations between the two countries, much like the
Sino-Indian experience wherein the two countries have set aside age-old
differences on border issues to pursue business. India is already Israel's
second-largest trading partner in Asia, after Japan.
There is an understanding of the desire for Tel Aviv to build bridges with
the Muslim world including Pakistan, given its anathema of Iran. Tel Aviv
is also flexible to the idea that India needs to handle Tehran delicately
given its energy needs from the second largest oil producing country of the
world.
In the past two months, commerce minister Kamal Nath and agriculture
minister Sharad Pawar have visited Israel and former external affairs
minister Natwar Singh was scheduled to visit Tel Aviv before March 2006 but
the minister has been removed following the revelations of the Volcker
report on Iraq's oil-for-food scam under the Saddam Hussein regime.
Nath was the only international keynote speaker invited to speak at Israel's
annual economic conference, chaired by Sharon, on November 10
Pawar is scheduled to visit Israel again to attend a major Agrotech
exhibition. There have been discussions to sign a preferential trade
agreement between the two countries. Over $ 1.3 billion foreign direct
investment from Israel has been cleared by India. Starting from around $200
million in the early 90s, bilateral trade is pegged at $ 3 billion in 2005,
a 14-fold increase. In fact, the State Bank of India and software major Tata
Consultancy Services (TCS) are in the process opening facilities in Tel
Aviv.
As many as 40 Indian companies have a presence on Israel's diamond bourses
that has accounted for 60 % of trade between the two countries. Both the
governments have agreed to set up a joint fund to provide seed capital to
Indian and Israeli companies. The corpus, initially $ 1 million each, will
be increased to $ 25 million. This fund is aimed at promoting technological
collaboration and R&D through joint ventures.
However, New Delhi knows that economics alone cannot be the bedrock for
geo-strategic game plans where nations try and outwit each other to garner
political mileage as well as resources. Otherwise China would not trade
with Japan and oppose all moves to incorporate the country into the global
arena, including membership of the UN Security Council. Similarly, while
India and Pakistan have a peace process they continue to clash in their
interests with US and now Israel.
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POLITICAL STORY
