It takes four hours to reach Kuwait from India but it took four decades for the Prime Minister [of India].” PM Narendra Modi’s comment during his visit to Kuwait — the last Indian PM to visit the country was Indira Gandhi — underscores the diplomatic and strategic neglect of a region that should have been of vital importance to New Delhi. For decades after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, the latter was justifiably upset at India’s ambivalence on the violation of its sovereignty. there may have been good reasons for Delhi’s position: The geopolitics of the time, India’s relative closeness to the erstwhile Soviet Union, and its sympathy for Ba’athist governments like Hussein’s. The problem was that in subsequent years, few attempts were made to bridge the divide even though Kuwait re-opened its doors to Indian workers, across sectors and skill levels. India’s engagement with West Asia and the Persian Gulf, particularly the moderate Arab states, has recovered and deepened considerably over the last decade. The challenge for Delhi now is to ensure that the warmth is translated into concrete national gains.
PM Modi held several meetings, including with Kuwait’s Amir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah and Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. Both countries’ agreed to elevate the relationship to a strategic partnership. They signed agreements that institutionalise defence cooperation, as well as on other areas such as renewables. For India, Kuwait is also a key source of investment — singly as well as the current president of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Approximately 89 per cent of the total FDI from the GCC has been received in the last decade and bilateral trade between India and Kuwait in the last fiscal year was over $10 billion. Indians also form the largest expatriate group in the country.
One of India’s great diplomatic successes of the last decade or so has been with moderate Arab states. PM Modi has visited the region several times and India had a role and has a stake in the success of the Abraham Accords. The current violence in Israel-Palestine and the instability post the fall of the Assad regime in Syria augur a strategic reorganising in the Gulf. In this context, shoring up ties with GCC countries like Kuwait is essential. India must now operationalise the security agreements — they have moved far too slowly in the past. It is also important to create a business-friendly environment that invites and secures investments from various players in the region, not least the Sovereign Funds of the GCC countries. For long, Delhi viewed the Gulf through the prism of its ties with Pakistan. That it is no longer a salient factor, with most regional players keen on deeper bilateral ties. It is also important for India to recognise how Kuwait has facilitated interactions with the diaspora and respected New Delhi’s sensitivities on cultural and religious matters. Indians, in government and outside it, should endeavour to do the same.
