The security leap

The deportation and arrest of Fasih Mohammed, allegedly involved in the Chinnaswamy Stadium blast in Bangalore and the shooting near Jama Masjid in Delhi in 2010, is the second Riyadh-Delhi extradition success story in recent times after the deportation and arrest of 26/11-accused Abu Jundal in June. Soon after the CBI had a red corner notice issued by Interpol against Fasih, Saudi authorities confirmed detaining him in June. The time since then has been occupied with sorting out the formalities, with the Saudi authorities reportedly asking India to provide more evidence against Fasih while claiming to "carefully" examine his stay and role in their country.

Both deportations are markers of the reinvented bilateral relationship between India and Saudi Arabia, sealed with the Riyadh Declaration of 2010. A pragmatic international actor, Saudi Arabia appears to have quickly adapted to the new world order over the last decade, and has sought to expand its foreign and security policy vision according to King Abdullah's "Look East" policy. The Riyadh Declaration, building on the Delhi Declaration of 2006, had aimed for enhanced security, defence, economic and energy cooperation between the two states, besides providing for the extradition treaty, which has helped New Delhi net Abu Jundal and Mohammed. Inhabiting a post-Arab Spring Middle East increasingly fractured along the Shia-Sunni/ Iran-Saudi divide, Riyadh realises its strategic imperatives, just as Delhi is conscious of the geopolitical significance of the Gulf for its own security needs. It is not incidental that Saudi Arabia — India's biggest oil supplier — has engaged in some proactive diplomacy with Delhi of late, keeping in mind a potentially nuclear Iran and the need for a stable global oil regime.

Navigating the bilateral road ahead may be tricky. It may not be possible to advertise every milestone, as Riyadh's reported unhappiness over the media exposure of its involvement in the Abu Jundal extradition might suggest. What matters is that with two men accused of terror being handed over by one country to another, the firming up of cooperation on security could also bode well for the possibilities of sharing and coordination in other areas.

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