[ad_1]
The recent visit of Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Foreign Minister S Jayashankar to Tehran has caused quite a stir in the international arena. The question is whether India is panicking over Iran-China.
According to a BBC Bangla report, the two top ministers in Modi’s government spent their days in Tehran in silence last week. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh arrived in Tehran on his way to Moscow to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. And Jaishankar spent the entire day in Tehran on Tuesday on his way back from Moscow.
Although the government has quietly advocated for refueling, the two Indian ministers have questioned why the oil did not land in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, but in Tehran.
Observers say India is deeply concerned about Iran’s rapprochement with arch-enemies China and Pakistan. Sanjay Bharadwaj, a professor of international relations at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, told BBC Bangla that India’s growing concern over Iran’s economic and strategic ties with China was growing.
He said that the political, economic and strategic importance of Iran for India is immense. India does not want to lose it in any way.
The importance of Iran for India
Professor Bhardwaj said that Iran is of great importance to India as it enters the markets of Afghanistan and Central Asia. That is why India was closely involved in the development of the Iranian port of Chabahar. He said India was interested in the energy and political support of an influential Muslim country like Iran on the Kashmir issue.
But it is clear that India and Iran are at two different poles in the rapidly changing geopolitics of Asia and the Middle East. In particular, Iran’s broad economic and strategic rapprochement with China, which has now become India’s worst enemy, is a nightmare for India.
However, the distance between Iran and India was not created in a day. As India’s economic and political ties with the United States have grown over the past 15 years, so has its distance with Iran. China has stepped in to fill that void.
Agreement between China and Iran
China and Iran have reportedly finalized a 25-year “strategic partnership” agreement. According to reliable sources, China will invest at least 40 billion over the next 25 years in Iran’s oil and gas, banking, telecommunications, port development, railway development and dozens of other key sectors.
Iran has officially announced the expansion of the port of Chabahar, a strategically important port in Iran that India has begun to develop, and the transfer of rail links to several major Iranian cities with that port. Not only that, China is now known to be eager to make the Chabahar port part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Former Indian diplomat Rakesh Sood said in an interview with the BBC’s Hindi Service that Iran was angered by India’s delay in fulfilling its promise to develop the port of Chabahar, mainly due to fears of US sanctions. Added to this is the impact of a radical change in coalition politics in Asia.
Rakesh Sood said: “Russia and China have similar views on the Middle East now. They are joined by Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. On the other hand, the Middle Eastern countries with which India is forging closer ties, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, are Iran’s biggest enemies.
New friendship between Pakistan and Iran
Observers say the growing interest in China’s relationship with Pakistan over Iran’s interests is an additional headache for India. Because the extent to which India will be able to maintain its influence in Afghanistan in the future depends to a large extent on Iran-Pakistan relations.
In an online discussion about Pakistan hosted by the Woodrow Wilson Center, a US think tank, in the last week of last month, Ayesha Siddique, a well-known security analyst in the United States, said there was a growing interest in Pakistan to establish new ties with Iran, mainly for financial gain.
“Saudi Arabia is reconsidering its interests in South Asia and India is more important to them than Pakistan,” he said. At the same time, Iran has become important to Pakistan.
When asked if India was completely losing to Iran, its longtime close and important ally, Vardoj said the United States, knowing he would not be happy, sent two influential ministers to Tehran to show how much they value relations with Iran. India wants to send a message that Delhi’s policy on foreign policy and strategic relations remains independent. They are uncompromising in this regard.
He said that a market as large as India has always been attractive to Iran and Iran must know that China will not buy all its fuel. But there is no doubt that factionalism in Asian geopolitics centered on the rivalry between the United States and China is sacrificing Indo-Iranian relations.
Source: BBC Bangla
SR / MS
The corona virus has changed our lives. Time is spent in joy, pain, crisis, anxiety. How are you spending your time? You can write in Jago News. Send it today – [email protected]
[ad_2]
