by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR
US President Joe Biden’s administration is in a persuasive mood, and won’t take no for an answer. National security adviser Jake Sullivan disclosed at a think tank conference in Washington on May 4 that he proposed to travel to Saudi Arabia that Saturday for talks with Saudi leaders, which reports indicate he did.
The Saudi establishment daily Asharq al-Awsat, quoting from Bloomberg, reported that Sullivan would be followed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken“in a new sign of the US administration’s determination to cement ties with the kingdom.”
Meanwhile, Sullivan revealed that also going to
Saudi Arabia would be representatives from India and the United Arab
Emirates to discuss“new areas of cooperation between New Delhi and the
Gulf as well as the United States and the rest of the region.” In
essence, he claimed he is spearheading a White House initiative to reset
Washington’s Gulf strategy.
Sullivan has a way of creating misconceptions, and there are no signs that New Delhi is even aware of this White House initiative to integrate India into the Biden administration’s Gulf strategy.
The timing of Sullivan’s
disclosure is interesting; it came soon after the India-Iran
consultations in Tehran and on the eve of the foreign minister-level
meeting Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in New Delhi on May 3-4.
Against the backdrop of Iran’s formal accession as a member of the SCO at the summit meeting in India on July 3-4, there is renewed interest in New Delhi to re-energize India-Iran economic cooperation.
An iranian foreign ministry statement said Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, who visited Tehran last week,“stressed the necessity of putting in place a roadmap of cooperation between the two nations within the framework of a long-term partnership”; sought an early meeting of the joint economic commission in Tehran to“provide fresh momentum” in the relations; and“exchanged views over the joint work of Iran and India in Chabahar, bilateral banking issues, the sanctions removal talks and regional issues.”
Doval’s counterpart, Iranian National Security
Adviser Ali Shamkhani, reportedly proposed that conducting bilateral
trade in the national currencies would“help the two countries to reach
their economic objectives,” while President Ebrahim Raisi underscored
that enhanced Iran-India economic partnership would enable the two
countries to play a bigger role in the new world order.
Unsurprisingly, Washington feels uneasy that India is strengthening its ties with Iran at a time when the Saudi-Iran detente has boosted Tehran’s regional standing while regional security in the Persian Gulf region is phenomenally transforming.
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