Forging India’s Strategic Partnership with Iran

Context

The civilizations between India and Iran have a millenarian geography of civilizational connections: between the Indus Valley-Harappan and other connections with Persian cultures in art, architecture, and in transport networks such as the silk road. Such historical synergy is the foundation of their current strategic alliance, which is being rejuvenated by the instability in West Asia. New diplomatic initiatives focus on economic cooperation and stability in the region, which is in line with energy security in India and market in Iran.

Historical and Civilisational Foundations

The Indian and Iranian relationship lies in a shared Indo-Iranian history that is not limited to modern nation states:

• Common Descent: The linguistic and mythological similarities between early sources such as the Rigveda and the Avesta are the testament to a common worldview, a mutual ancestry, which gave rise to an unparalleled reservoir of trust, and which had persevered through political revolutions over the millennia.
• Cultural and Literary Exchange: Over centuries Persian was not only adopted in the Indian subcontinent, but also as a means of art, diplomacy and poetry. The result of this exchange was the creation of the unique Indian Style (Sabk-e Hendi) in Persian literature, which is today in the works of such poets as Mirza Abdul-Qadir Bedil Dehlawi, whose poems are still read in both countries.
• Lasting Affinity: This cultural hospitality has seen to it that despite the gap in time or change in political attitudes, there has been a sense of understanding and cultural kinship that has weighed it on a firm foundation that the modern day interaction can be anchored.

Contemporary Strategic and Economic Convergence

The historical affinity is now being turned into a strategic necessity by the same economic interests and compulsions that in the current geopolitical environment are converting the past into the present.

• Energy Security: India is a rapidly developing economy, and as the world, it has a high dependence on imports of energy. Iran is a natural partner of India with its huge hydrocarbon deposits and strategic in ensuring the long term energy security of India.
• Connectivity and Trade: It is probably the most impactful section of cooperation. The construction of the Shahid Beheshti Port at Chabahar by India is a strategic decision to avoid geopolitical chokepoints and have access to Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Eurasia. Iran is an important part of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), which is a multimodal route connecting the two countries and is about 40 percent shorter and 30 percent cheaper to use than the Suez Canal route to provide a competitive edge in the Eurasian trade to both countries.
• Security Cooperation: The two countries have similar interests in regard to increasing extremism and terrorism especially in West and South Asia. Intelligence cooperation is a pillar of an invisible but fundamental relationship between the two nations in order to deal with these common threats.

Way Forward

• Diversification Beyond Oil: The alliance must not just focus on the traditional oil trade and connectivity ventures but must add augmented expertise in other areas such as information technology, nanotechnology and medical sciences where both nations have excelled.
• Increasing Financial Virtue: The introduction of flexible financial schemes, including local currencies trade, can limit the susceptibility of the partnership to the influence of external third-party pressures and sanctions, which will guarantee the stability of the partnership.
• Putting Goodwill into Concrete Action: This is the time to convert the goodwill of the past into tangible, practical collaboration so that the affinity of cultures is congruent with the strategic, economic and technological alliance.
• Strategic Independence: India should still be managing the third party pressures in a strategic forbearance way, focusing on its national interests to create a collaborative, enduring and independent relationship with Iran.

Conclusion 

The framework of the linked civilisations can be used to view the India-Iran relations in a new way, shifting the relationship based on historical goodwill to realistic alliance to the future. This alliance is critical to the simultaneous success of both of these countries as well as establishing a balance in the unstable situation of West Asia and strengthening a multipolar world system.

Source: The Hindu

UPSC Mains Practice Question

Q. With reference to India–Iran relations, consider the following statements:

1. Chabahar Port provides India with direct access to Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan.
2. Iran is a member of the International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC), in which India is also a participant.
3. India imports crude oil from Iran without any restrictions under the US sanctions regime.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

A. 1 and 2 only
B. 2 only
C. 1 and 3 only
D. 1, 2 and 3

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