Diplomatist Magazine Diplomatist August 2018 | Page 9

INDIA-SAUDI ARABIA:
70 YEARS OF LINKING WEST
By Aashna John*
minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal’s official
visit in 1981 reaffi rmed the conscious effort
being undertaken to redraw the previously
held notions of associations with India. The
following year saw a momentous peak in
political interchange with the Indian Prime
Minister, Indira Gandhi paying her visit to
the custodian of the holiest sites of Islam. Her
visit was a watershed moment in boosting
bilateral relations 9 . It appeared to have given
the two countries an opportunity to break out
of the restrictive relationship they had got
locked into as a result of those old attitudes
and suspicions and recognize that the stability
and security of the Gulf region and that of the
Indian subcontinent were closely interlinked.
This was an implicit acknowledgement that,
just as India had a legitimate concern in the
Gulf; Saudi Arabia too had a stake in the
Indian subcontinent 10 . It opened up several
avenues and opportunities in the fi elds of
economic cooperation and other bilateral
relations.
India’s emergence as a prominent power
in West Asia in the 1980s coincided with
Saudi Arabia’s growing role as an effective
Arab power. With the end of the cold war,
the Talibanisation of Afghanistan, the
liberalization of the Indian economy, its rise
as an information technology power and the
coup in Pakistan, the situation became more
favorable for the warming of Indo-Saudi
relations. 11
India’s substantive ties with Saudi Arabia
developed satisfactorily during the 1990s.
The number of visits that took place between
the two countries went a long way in
India’s
emergence as
a prominent
power in West
Asia in the 1980s
coincided with
Saudi Arabia’s
growing role as
an effective Arab
power.
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 6 • Issue 8 • August 2018, Noida • 9
H
istorically, it would not be incorrect
to term Indo-Saudi relations as
cordial, refl ecting the centuries of
economic and social collaborations between
the two 1 . However it would be inaccurate, to
an extent, unjustifi ed even, to limit the sole
narrative to such minimalism. This essay
seeks to trace the timeline and evolution of
bilateral engagements between these two
emerging giants, critical to the peace and
security in their respective regions.
Diplomatic relations were established
soon in 1947, noting fully well the importance
Saudi Arabia held as a state power and a
trading base in West Asia 2 . The first top
level contact occurred in 1955, with King
Saud visiting Delhi. The joint statement
released reflected a certain harmony in
political outlook 3 and mutual agreement to
the Nehruvian principles of peaceful co-
existence, the Panchsheel 4 .
The following two decades can be
perfectly described as an age of “political
distance” 5 . India’s foreign policy of non-
alignment bought it closer to Egypt and
other secular states in the region 6 . There
has, however, never been any direct rivalry
between the two countries 7 .
The oil boom of 1970 was a turning
point and ushered in a number of steps
to improve bonds. Sheikh Ahmad Zaki
Yamani, the Petroleum Minister, visited
India in February 1975, asserting a notable
shift in attitudes by expressing a desire for
mutual economic cooperation. This visit was
particularly imper ative for reviving a long
neglected friendship 8 . The Saudi foreign