India moves cautiously as tensions rise in Middle East

The growing animosity between Israel and Iran has created diplomatic problems for India, which has long-standing and important relations with both countries.

Kallol Bhattacherjee, a senior foreign affairs analyst, said that if an Iran-Iraq war broke out, New Delhi would be unable to support or oppose either side.

In an interview with Voice of America, Bhattacherji said that 7 million Indians work in the Gulf countries and remit more than US$90 billion in foreign exchange to India every year. If there is a war in the Middle East, Indian workers will be the worst affected and remittances will stop.

Senior foreign affairs analyst Umashankar Singh said India has a strategic relationship with Israel and a historical relationship with Iran.

He said that India and Israel have been cooperating for decades in various fields, including defense and technology, and Israel is India’s largest arms supplier.

He said Iran was India’s second-largest oil supplier before India came under sanctions over its nuclear programme. Although India has been unable to buy oil from Iran for four consecutive years, relations between the two countries remain close.

India and Iran signed a defense agreement in 2002, and New Delhi invested in the construction of Iran’s Chabahar port.

Bhattacherji said Iran has provided help to India on issues such as relations with Central Asian countries, communication with the Taliban and other security and defense matters.

Iran, Russia and India established the multilateral corridor model in September 2000 to promote cooperation in the transportation field. Later Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Oman, Syria and Bulgaria were also included in the corridor.

There are not many Indian workers in Iran. India’s foreign ministry says there are 4,000 Indian immigrants in Iran, while there are 18,000 Indians in Israel, many of whom work in nursing jobs. hinduism newspaper. Another 6,000 people are expected to arrive soon to fill Palestinian construction jobs left vacant by the Israel-Hamas war, the newspaper said.

India and Israel signed an agreement to send an additional 1,500 Indian workers to Israel, with the first batch of 65 arriving on April 2. The dispatch of the second batch was delayed due to the threat of further escalation of the Iran-Iraq conflict.

Israel’s ambassador to India, Nar Gilon, said protection would be provided to Indian workers.

This story originated from VOA Urdu Service.