India and Saudi Arabia move beyond
oil By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - Oil was expected to feature
prominently in this week's visit of King Abdullah
bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia to India. But
terror and geostrategy figured as much, signifying
that Riyadh and New Delhi have worked out common
grounds that have taken more than a decade to iron
out.
The importance that India attached to
the visit - the first by a Saudi king since 1955 -
was reflected by Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, who broke
protocol to receive the monarch at the airport
when he arrived late in the evening. King
Abdullah, who headed a 250-member delegation, was
also the chief guest at the Republic Day parade in
New Delhi on Thursday, an occasion when India's
military might is on display, as much as its
cultural, social and economic diversity.
Apart from looking at India and China
(prior to his India sojourn the king visited
Beijing) as a rich market to sell its oil, and
thus reduce its dependence on the United States,
Riyadh has been trying to engage New Delhi in
other spheres. One reflection is that it has moved
beyond the traditional definition of looking at
India through the Pakistan prism. There have been
efforts to dehyphenate the Islamabad-New Delhi
link, with Saudi Arabia expressing support to
Indian efforts in Kashmir, including the
institution of a permanent border along the Line
of Control (that separates Indian and Pakistan
Kashmir), which is opposed by Islamabad.
Islamabad was further rattled when prior
to his New Delhi visit, the king agreed to support
India's claim for observer status at the
Organization of Islamic Conferences. As per OIC
rules, no country that has an ongoing dispute with
a member nation (Kashmir in the case of India and
Pakistan) can be given observer status.
Analysts say that such moves by Saudi
Arabia are also calculated to prompt a decisive
tilt by New Delhi away from Iran, which is a big
competitor in the energy market. Officials
accompanying King Abdullah said that Riyadh was
uncomfortable with Tehran's nuclear-development
program, a stand that goes down well with New
Delhi, which has been facing domestic political
pressure because of its siding with Western powers
on the issue.
Observers also say that New
Delhi pushing ties with Riyadh is a result of a
well thought out process at a time when New
Delhi's relations with Iran are pegged to the way
Washington perceives Tehran. India has enjoyed
traditional ties with Iran and Iraq for a long
time to meet its energy requirements. However, in
the context of Tehran's aggressive anti-Western
tirades and independent nuclear program, and the
problems in Iraq, India has been looking to extend
its influence beyond the Persian Gulf to the Saudi
peninsula.
Riyadh is also uncomfortable
with India's growing relationship with Israel that
has extended beyond defense ties. As part of the
engagement between New Delhi and Jerusalem,
Israel's national security adviser is scheduled to
arrive in New Delhi next month. The visit has been
delayed by the ill health of Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon.
In this context, one more
highlight of the visit of King Abdullah was the
subject of terror, which is of serious concern to
both countries. A memorandum of understanding on
combating crime was signed between the two
countries during the visit. The agreement broadly
covers terrorism, transnational crime and
subversive underworld operations and deals with
methods of combating the menace.
"We have
declared a war against terror and we will continue
our struggle against terrorism until it gets
over," a spokesperson quoted King Abdullah as
saying. "It might be a long-term struggle, but the
battle will continue unless this scourge is
eliminated," the Saudi monarch told Singh.
A meeting with Defense Minister Pranab
Mukherjee also provided perhaps the first
opportunity for the heads of Indian intelligence
agencies to interact with their Saudi
counterparts.
In the past, Indian security
agencies have detailed several instances of
arrested terrorists having visited Saudi Arabia,
including some of the masterminds behind the
recent attacks in New Delhi and Bangalore, who
have been arrested. Officials in New Delhi believe
Saudi Arabia is the meeting point of Indian and
Pakistani-backed terrorists who plot their strikes
in Indian Kashmir and elsewhere.
Security
officials believe the militants visit Saudi Arabia
under the pretext of the hajj as the
country is home to Mecca and Medina, the holiest
shrines of the 150 million Indian Muslims. New
Delhi also wants Riyadh to keep an eye on the
sizable funds that are transferred to India, a big
portion of which is suspected to be routed to
fundamentalist institutions.
Of equal
importance to India is the Saudi shift from
promoting radical and jihadi Islamists that saw
the birth of the likes of Osama bin Laden and
culminated in the September 11, 2001, attacks
being perpetrated by Saudi fundamentalists. The
intricate web developed by Saudi intelligence to
wage jihad against the erstwhile Soviet Union in
the early 1980s and Afghanistan has been well
documented.
However, there is a
realization that such efforts have eaten away the
innards of Saudi society. Terrorism has since
turned on Riyadh with the country as much a victim
of the monster it helped create. The Saudi
decision to take on Islamic radicals and support
the US against those who promote terror is
critical for India. The agreement on terror,
however, stopped short of a legal understanding
that is considered to be a precursor to signing an
extradition treaty.
New Delhi has been
pushing for a comprehensive agreement with Riyadh
as it is because of such an arrangement with the
United Arab Emirates that India has managed to
plug holes in the underworld dragnet that
perpetrates crimes in the country, including
terror attacks. The perception of India as a
"responsible" nation in Europe has also led to the
extradition of dreaded gangster Abu Salem from
Portugal. This has opened several leads to the
operations of mobsters and terror attacks in the
past.
There is no doubt, though, that the
bedrock of India and Saudi relations is business.
Agreements were signed during the visit to
strengthen the institutional and legal framework
of doing business, with bilateral trade expected
to cross US$7 billion by 2010. Public and private
companies signed six pacts for cooperation in
energy, financial services and the health-care
sector.
According to reports, Oil and
Natural Gas Corp, India's state-owned energy
giant, is planning to rope in Saudi Aramco, the
world's largest oil producer, as its equity
partner for the 7.5-million-tonne-per-annum
Kakinada refinery project in Andhra Pradesh.
Reliance, a private energy firm, is reported to
have decided to invest in an $8 billion refinery
and petrochemicals project in Saudi Arabia. India
is Saudi Arabia's fourth-largest oil export
destination.
Siddharth
Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist.
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