Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
8
India and Israel: Emerging Partnership
P.R.KUMARASWAMY
Under normal circumstances, India's relations with a single country should not
generate undue controversies, especially if the country in question is not a great
power. Bilateral relations are motivated by shared political, economic, cultural or
strategic interests and hence the absence of relations between any two sovereign
countries would reflect the relative importance the countries in question attach to
each another. However, Israel has been a unique case in India's foreign policy.
The prolonged Indian reluctance and refusal to establish normal diplomatic
relations with the Jewish State had been one of the most controversial
dimensions of India's foreign policy. The four decades of non-relations as well
as the extent of relations during the past decade have attracted widespread
attention, comments and even criticisms.
The newly-found relations between India and Israel should not be dismissed as
another example of bilateral relations. It heralded a new phase of assertive
independence in India's foreign policy when it bade farewell to past rhetoric and
ideological baggage and opted for interest-driven realism. For long, its Israel
policy had been a prisoner of various regional pressures and domestic concerns
and normalization is a departure from this past.
The establishment of resident missions did not accompany its hesitant
recognition in 1950. Initial Indian inclination toward the establishment of normal
diplomatic relations was not acted upon and soon it became a hostage to various
domestic compulsions and regional apprehensions. As a result, for the next four
decades non-relations with Israel became the hallmark of India's Middle East
policy. On 29 January 1992, when Prime Minister Narasimha Rao remedied this
anomaly and completed the process initiated by Jawaharlal Nehru, India became
the last major non-Arab and non-Islamic power to establish diplomatic ties with
Israel.
The importance of the changed international climate following the end of the
Cold War played a significant role in Rao reversing protracted Indian
unfriendliness if not hostility toward Israel. The collapse of the bipolar world
order had granted new strategic space for regional powers to define their
interests to optimize their security. At the same time, it is possible to argue that
