Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Oman and Qatar, days before his departure for the G20 meeting in Washington, has given India a strategic toehold in the Gulf — two agreements on defence and security have been signed with Qatar, a country that is home to a US naval base. Short of having a permanent station in Doha, India will be ready to go calling whenever Qatari assets need protection.

With this one move, India is signalling to the region its readiness to play a larger-than-before role as it polices the Indian Ocean and the waters up to the Gulf of Aden. The pact allows India to take care of the defence requirements of Qatar, including intelligence sharing and manpower training.

As if to drive home the point about its growing military prowess, the Indian Navy on Tuesday, in its first-ever action after being deployed in the Gulf of Aden, thwarted an attempt by pirates to capture an Indian merchant vessel in the region.

Given the importance of the Indian Ocean due to its sizeable maritime hydrocarbon traffic and the country’s growing stature as an emerging economic power, the deep-reach capability is of strategic significance.

The Indian delegation, comprising three ministers, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, is learnt to have gone all out to get their Gulf counterparts to wake up to the fact that India is a better place — both in terms of security and returns — to invest in than the west. According to a senior delegate, Oman and Qatar were told that the Indian banking system with certain controls is a better bet than the west.

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