Over the past year, India has significantly expanded its outreach to the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)—Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait—with the ambition of diversifying its traditionally energy-focused relations with the region into security, military and political partnerships.
During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s May 15 visit to the UAE, the two sides agreed on the framework for a strategic defense partnership, while also signing deals on strategic petroleum reserves, Indian purchases of liquefied petroleum gas, and treaties on security and artificial intelligence. The two sides agreed to a bilateral trade target of $200 billion, which is roughly double the current amount.
The strategic defense partnership as well as the security and AI treaties signal a shift in bilateral relations, which until now had been revolving around trade in oil. The timing is important here. For the UAE, closer security relations with India are increasingly important because of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. While a preliminary deal was recently reached to end hostilities, the conflict still showed how vulnerable the UAE’s infrastructure and economy are to Iranian reprisals and how Abu Dhabi’s dependence on Washington’s increasingly unreliable security commitments has not paid off as expected. As a result, the UAE is adopting a long-term approach of diversification when it comes to its foreign partnerships.
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Emil Avdaliani is a Research Fellow at the Turan Research Center.