Breaking a mindset

THE DIPLOMATIC NOVELTY of an intensive engagement between India and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan's traditional patron-ally, was the prime attraction of the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh's latest visit to Riyadh. The reported success of the tour, concerning in particular the transparent willingness of the top Saudi leaders to widen the scope of the evolving bilateral dialogue, has eclipsed the original question about whose initiative it was to break the old mindset of reservations on both sides about the other's diplomatic instincts. It is also just as well that Pakistan has officially expressed confidence about being able to cope with the consequences of any new equation between Riyadh and New Delhi. Contrary to the initial reports from Islamabad, the Musharraf administration seems to have thought better of a cynical reading of India's real intentions. In the process, Pakistan may have placed its trust entirely in the wisdom of the Saudi leadership to interact with India now and in the future in a manner that need not cause anxieties in Islamabad. For Pakistan, a realistic reckoner at this stage is that India's tactical new links with Saudi Arabia, however genuine these might be, cannot easily overshadow or root out the ideological-strategic ties of a fraternal kind that exist between Riyadh and Islamabad. Seen in this light, the Vajpayee administration can perhaps expect Saudi Arabia, the bastion of Islamic faith, to interpret India to Pakistan, nothwithstanding New Delhi's standard line that it needs no third party to deal with Islamabad.

Outwardly, New Delhi appears to have been able to befriend a staunch ally of Pakistan in quite a dramatic way in the present circumstances of much strategic flux on the wider international stage. This event is also arguably more noteworthy than the recent move, a somewhat abortive one at that, by Islamabad to reach out to Russia after it recaptured much of the warmth that marked the old Soviet Union's ties with India. Yet, it will be singularly myopic of New Delhi to view Riyadh solely through the prism of the Pakistan factor. It is welcome, therefore, that Mr. Singh and his Saudi hosts are reported to have turned the spotlight on larger issues of strategic-political stability in the southern and western parts of Asia. A point doing the diplomatic rounds in recent months, especially in Palestinian circles, has received a fresh impetus now. It is said that Riyadh, too, is keen to ascertain the role that New Delhi, given its perceived new outreach to Israel, could play in bringing about a peaceful settlement of the age-old West Asian political puzzles. A requisite note of caution to the Vajpayee administration is that it should not go beyond a diplomacy of essentially non-mediatory goodwill in West Asia at this stage.

Mr. Singh's diplomatic ``pilgrimage'' to Saudi Arabia has brought into focus a relative new notion about the connectivity between the security of West Asia (including the Gulf region) and the stability of South Asia (meaning specifically the India-Pakistan relationship). This idea deserves to be scrutinised thoroughly. The sustainability of the regional dimension of an evolving India-Saudi Arabia `entente', as also the durability of a new equation itself between the two countries, will hinge entirely on how well they can manage their purely bilateral interactions. Riyadh's strong energy profile is well recognised on the international landscape, while the presence of an Indian workforce, including professionals, in Saudi Arabia is a more or less conspicuous reality. New Delhi and Riyadh had in the past allowed their citizens themselves to determine the dynamics of bilateral ties in the absence of significantly definitive interventions by the Governments concerned save for some regulatory measures. If Mr. Singh's diplomatic labours in Riyadh can make a positive difference to this situation, his visit will have served a purpose in the short run.

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