Pointing to multiple ongoing conflicts in West Asia, most recently the escalating situation in Syria where rebels claim to have ousted the Bashar al-Assad regime, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday said “there are challenges from Gaza to Lebanon to Syria,” and that India has competing interests in the region. Be realistic about.
Jaishankar was speaking at Manama Dialogue in Bahrain. The theme of the 20th edition of the program was ‘Middle East Leadership in Shaping Regional Prosperity and Security’.
“What we do in my business is try to address the challenges of the day collectively and as effectively as possible. And this will extend today from Gaza to Lebanon and now to Syria. But at the same time, we have to be realistic about the competing interests in the region,” he said. . “One of the interesting developments in the world today is actually on different issues, sometimes in the same area, you have a different combination of countries working together,” he added.
The minister also weighed in on the “relations, or lack thereof, between Israel and Iran”, which, he said, has been a source of concern and some of India’s diplomatic efforts are focused on that aspect.
“We are a country that has the ability to talk to both Israel and Iran. That is one communication link, which is weak. We are not the only communication link. We are serving an important cause; At the right time, the right people get the intended message,” he said. In October, Iran fired about 200 missiles into Israel in response to Israel’s killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders of the militant organization. Israel later retaliated against the Iranian attack.
Regarding attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea (by Houthi rebels), Jaishankar said India is interested in trying to de-escalate the security situation. “So when we look at sea routes and insurance costs, and shipping costs and container costs and the delays that it imposes, obviously, you know, India, but not just India, we’re interested in trying to mitigate that situation,” he added. .
He also highlighted India’s sustainable economic growth and the West Asian region’s place in that matrix. “India is almost a $4 trillion economy today, (and) we expect that to double in this decade. Our business today is about $800 billion; That too should be at least doubled this decade,” he said.
“So again I cannot exaggerate the stakes we have because this region is for us a world beyond our borders that immediately awaits us,” he said.