• The meeting between the Saudi Crown Prince and the national security advisers of the US, UAE, and India in Riyadh highlights the growing strategic convergence between India and the US in the Gulf.
• The meeting also underlines India''s new possibilities in the Arabian Peninsula.
• The new India-US warmth on the Gulf is a significant departure from the traditional approaches to the Middle East in both India and the US.

India’s Traditional foreign policy in the Gulf

• It was the proposition that India must either oppose the US or keep its distance from it in the Middle East.
• India withdrew from its historic geopolitical role in the Middle East under Nehruvian foreign policy.

Impact of Nehruvian foreign policy:

• Pakistan became the lynchpin of the Anglo-American strategy to secure the “wells of (oil) power” in the Gulf.
• Pakistan was a key part of the Baghdad Pact created in 1955 along with Britain, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey to counter the Communist threat.
• After Iraq withdrew in 1958, the pact became the Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO) and moved to Turkey.
• The regional members of CENTO, Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey, formed a forum on Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) in 1964.
• CENTO was dissolved in 1979.
• However, Pakistan did not figure in the current strategy to connect the Gulf with the Subcontinent.

Decline of Pakistan in the Gulf

• In the 1950s, Pakistan was considered a moderate Muslim nation with significant prospects for economic growth.
• However, Pakistan''s continuing strategic decline has made it less relevant to the changing geopolitics of the Gulf.
• Pakistan has locked itself into a self-made trap of violent religious extremism, and its political elite is unprepared to lift the nation economically.
• Pakistan has drifted too close to China, which has made matters more complicated.
• As the US-China confrontation sharpens, Pakistan is tempted to align with China and Russia in the region to boost its "all-weather partnership" with China.

China’s Influence in the Gulf

• China''s diplomatic and political influence in the Gulf region will continue to rise, but it is nowhere near displacing the US as the principal external actor in the Gulf.
• However, the Anglo-American connection to the Arabian Peninsula dates back to the late 16th century, and the Anglo-Saxon powers have no intention of ceding the Gulf to China.

Rising power of the Arabian Peninsula

• The Gulf kingdoms have undergone an ambitious economic transformation that will reduce their dependence on oil over the long term.
• They have also started to diversify their strategic partnerships, promote religious tolerance at home, develop nationalism as the political foundation for their states, and initiate social reform.

Current Indian foreign policy in the Gulf

• India rejected the notion that it can’t be visibly friendly to Israel.
• India turned its uneasy relations with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, into solid strategic partnerships.
• India became a part of a four-nation grouping, unveiled in October 2021 called I2U2 that brought the US, India, Israel, and the UAE together.       
• Not only the US, but France also has emerged as an important partner in the Gulf and the Western Indian Ocean.
• India now has a trilateral dialogue with UAE and France.

India’s Possibilities in Arabia

• The New Arabian Tale presents new possibilities for India''s economic growth and productive involvement in promoting connectivity and security within Arabia and between it and other connected regions, including Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean, and the Subcontinent.
• India''s engagement in the Arabian Tale should also help overcome the dangerous forces of violent religious extremism within the Subcontinent.

The emerging possibilities for partnership with the US and the West, along with the new opportunities in Arabia, position India to rapidly elevate its standing in the region. However, to seize these opportunities, India needs to modernize its strategic discourse on the Gulf and make concerted efforts to change the outdated narratives on the Arabian Peninsula.