Beyond the ‘Israel Habit’: India’s West Asia Shift

Context

India’s enduring partnership with Israel risks becoming a rigid diplomatic habit rather than a dynamic strategy. As West Asia faces shifting geopolitical fault lines, including US-Iran confrontations and emerging regional realignments, New Delhi must balance its bilateral engagements to protect its vital energy, economic, and diaspora interests. 

The Evolution of India’s ‘Israel Habit’

• De-hyphenation: In terms of history, India’s foreign policy combined Israel and Palestine. Later, New Delhi has pursued a “de-hyphenated” policy, which enables it to strengthen its bilateral relations with Israel while at the same time, it has backed the Palestinian cause. 
• Structural Embrace: What began as tactical engagement in defense and agriculture blossomed into a strategic partnership by 2017. Israel is also today a major exporter of defense technology, such as co-developed technology as with the Barak-8 missile system. 
• Multilateral Groupings: India’s inclusion in platforms such as I2U2 Grouping and the proposed corridors like IMEC, underscores a formalized partnership between Indian economic and connectivity interests, and Tel Aviv and Washington. 

Changing West Asian Realities

• U.S.-Iran Confrontation: The geopolitical stand-off between the United States and Iran is no longer a distant affair – it is a reality that affects India’s domestic economy. There is a high risk of escalations blocking critical oil transmission chokepoints in the Strait of Hormuz. 
• The new realities: Recent regional escalations, joint security exercises and changes in leadership within Iran have made older assumptions about the power of certain regional powers look increasingly outdated. 
• Shifting US Calculus: Washington’s strategic calculus in the region is changing, with the U.S. seeking diplomatic off-ramps while navigating visible frictions with maximalist leadership in Tel Aviv . 

Strategic Challenges for India

• Balancing Tel Aviv and Tehran: India’s deepening security alignment with Israel poses a diplomatic risk of alienating Iran, a vital nation for India’s energy security and Central Asian connectivity (via the Chabahar port). 
• The Global South credibility: India’s over-emphasis on some western/Israeli alliances in the polarized West Asia can jeopardise its credibility and diplomatic influence within the wider Global South and the Arab Gulf countries. 
• Diaspora and Energy Security: Millions of Indians reside and work in the Gulf region, and the bulk of India’s crude oil passes through vulnerable maritime chokepoints, making stability paramount. 

The Way Forward: Diplomatic Balance

• Strategic Autonomy: India should avoid complacency and stop making routine leaps and bounds to foreign strategies and pursuits, and opt for strategic flexibility and issue-based engagements.
• Differentiated Ties: New Delhi should maintain a multi-aligned stance, on defense ties with Israel while strengthening economic and diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia, UAE and Iran.
• Diplomatic proactivity: India must proactively use diplomatic avenues to promote de-escalation and regional peace while maintaining essential economic connectivity without getting entangled in local wars. 

Source: The Hindu

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