The Tehran tightrope

India must navigate turbulence of Iran-US and Iran-Saudi Arabia tensions

Every three years, there is much political excitement when the leaders of the non-aligned movement gather in some corner of the world. The hype, however, is rarely matched by the small pickings from NAM summits. At the last two summits, Sharm el-Sheikh (2009) and Havana (2006), the Indian public interest was focused on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meetings with the Pakistani leaders.

In Havana, Singh's meeting with the then Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, came after the bombing of the Mumbai suburban trains and New Delhi's decision to suspend the bilateral talks. Musharraf gave Singh a face-saver in the form of a new mechanism for terror talks and the PM announced the resumption of talks.

At Sharm el-Sheik, the reference to Balochistan in a banal joint statement on the talks between Singh and then Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani generated a big controversy in India and prevented Delhi from a quick resumption of the talks that were in a limbo after the terror attack on Mumbai at the end of November 2008.

This time round, the India-Pakistan talks are moving along at a snail's pace. Few are willing to bet that a Singh-Zardari encounter in Tehran will produce a major political breakthrough.

Meanwhile, the NAM has long ceased to be an important element of India's foreign policy. On the multilateral front, India is more interested in smaller groupings like the G-20, where it rubs shoulders with the top world leaders, the BRICS (where it is developing a new international agenda with China, Russia, Brazil and South Africa), and the IBSA (India's own smaller shop with two other democratic middle powers, Brazil and South Africa).

Even more important for Delhi are the SAARC, the forum to promote India's interests in the subcontinent, and the East Asia Summit that is a vehicle to strengthen India's standing in a region of growing global importance.

... contd.

ALSO READ

Everyone loves food security

'We don't appreciate each other... When people ask me to quit, do you think it doesn't affect me? And how often do you want me to resign?'

National Interest: BJP's troubled House

No yuan for growth