ndia and Iran were ancient civilizations whose relations spanned over centuries. It may be recalled that by 1947 both India and Iran experienced a complex fall-out of the World War II. No doubt India attained freedom but an inevitable sequel was that Independent India lost her age-old territorial contiguity with Iran. India’s loss was the inheritance by Pakistan of about 590 miles of common border with Iran. If Pakistan set India and Iran geographically apart, the UK systematically erased the Indo-Iranian political, diplomatic and cultural ties during two centuries of its encroachment and subsequent control over the Indian subcontinent.
FOREIGN POLICIES
Iran, under Reza Shah Pahlavi chose to ally with the west, while India at the same time, under then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, professed to follow a policy of “non alignment” which meant avoiding foreign entanglements by not joining one bloc or the other. Just as Iran’s closeness with Pakistan concerned India, India’s close relationship with certain Arab states like Egypt and Syria and Nehru’s fraternity with the Egyptian President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, irked the Shah of Iran. However, in the absence of any irritant in a strictly bilateral context, the Shah thought it prudent to engage India in order to assuage India’s apprehensions about the perceived Iranian “tilt” towards Pakistan.
The Shah, just four months after Iran’s adherence to the CENTO, paid his first visit to India in February 1956, during which he tried to assure the Indian leadership that Iran’s close relations with Pakistan were not directed against India. The visit was reciprocated by the visit to Iran by the Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru in 1959. With the beginning of the 1960s, however, Indo-Iranian relations started showing some signs of improvement, primarily due to the Shah’s decision to follow a more independent foreign policy vis-à-vis the US and to improve relations with the Soviet Union. The detente between Iran and the Soviet Union allowed for more relaxed relations between countries like Iran and India. Iran’s support for India during the 1962 Sino-Indian conflict further contributed to the warming trend in bilateral relations. The Iranian gesture was reciprocated by India through President S. Radha Krishnan’s visit to Tehran in May 1963. In the same year, the Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, too visited Iran.
During Indo-Pak war of 1965 and 1971 Iran provided military assistance and support for Pakistan. These developments may be viewed in the context of the new formation of Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in 1969 and Pakistan’s effort in wooing the Islamic States.
IRAN AS AN ISLAMIC REPUBLIC
However, the Arab-Israeli War of 1973 and strategic oil as a weapon presented a different scenario in the Gulf. The Shah of Iran also changed his policies towards India for joint venture projects.
The emergence of Islamic Republic was initially viewed as a positive development by India. The Government of India even sent a special delegation to Iran but later suggested that their interaction remained minimal. Iran’s version of Islamic causes and stands on some of her domestic issues led to a serious setback to Indo-Iranian relations. During the Iran-Iraq war, Pakistan supported Iran, while India remained largely neutral.
In the 1990s, relations between both countries improved. With the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989, there was a change in atmosphere. Iran witnessed not only a new leader but also a new President. Furthermore, the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. New relationship revived between India and Iran. Both countries enjoyed good relations that included high level political and military visits, joint naval exercises, naval technology cooperation, and maritime infrastructure developments in Iran symbolised by Port development in Chahbahar.
NEW ERA OF COOPERATION
The early years of the 21st century witnessed this tempo of good relations. In 2001, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited Tehran. The visit culminated in the 2001 Tehran Declaration, signed by Prime Minister Vajpayee and Iran’s President Mohammad Khatami. The Tehran Declaration laid the foundation for Indian and Iranian Cooperation on a wide range of strategic issues, including defence cooperation. In January 2003, former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami was the Chief Guest at the Indian Republic Day parade. This is the highest honour generally reserved for the most important personalities. Both countries signed the New Delhi Declaration, which was important both in its timing and substance. India and Iran wanted to move ahead on commercial and energy issues. While Iran is seen as a large potential source of Oil and future gas supplies, currently Iran supplies only 5-7 per cent of India’s oil demand. The main focus of India’s energy cooperation with Iran is on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project and the $20 billion LNG deal, which continues to be held up over pricing and security related differences. Despite India’s denial, US pressure against the project has further complicated the issue.
INDIA’S VOTE AGAINST IRAN
Given the historical ties between the two nations, India’s surprise vote against Iran in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) governing board in September 2005 and again in February and March 2006 to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for violating its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) shocked Iran. While many attributed India’s action to US arm-twisting on the Indo-US nuclear deal. The US ambassador to India in January 2006 said that if India chooses not to side with the United States the deal would not be passed by US Congress. Despite the vote, India is unlikely to abandon its relationship with Tehran or allow the United States to interfere in the same. India’s position, despite voting against Iran in the IAEA in 2005 and 2006, is that while it backs Iran’s peaceful use of nuclear energy, as a member of the NPT, Tehran must observe its obligations under the treaty and take the international community’s and the IAEA’s views into consideration. India firmly believes that the issue must be resolved through dialogue and discussion.
INDIAN DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS
India’s External Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Iran in February 2007, the first by a senior minister since India voted against Iran in the IAEA, was aimed at repairing some of the damage as well as to underscore close bilateral ties. Interestingly, Mukherjee’s visit took place soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s (at that time) visit to India during which the Iranian issue was discussed at length and both sides agreed to cooperate to find an effective solution to the Iranian nuclear standoff through political and diplomatic efforts. As oil and gas projects with Iran are important for India, New Delhi would have gone a long way in mitigating some of its long-term energy concerns.
Iran’s priority is to cultivate and strengthen relations with Beijing, both due to China’s burgeoning energy market and its permanent membership in the UNSC. Iran is banking on both China and Russia to prevent the United States from succeeding in its anti-Iran campaign in the United Nations, both in terms of economic sanctions and military action. In contrast, India, which was earlier seen as a potential mediator in the US-Iran conflict, may now be seen by Iran as less dependable, following its vote against Iran’s nuclear programme in the IAEA. India is also not a huge destination of Iranian crude, with India buying around 7.5 per cent of its total crude imports from Iran. However, in the event that Iran carries out its threat to disrupt or terminate supplies, the resulting high price of international oil in general will affect India adversely, sending its already high oil import bills soaring. Although India’s foreign exchange reserves are comfortably placed, the government has on several occasions voiced its concern about the impact of high oil prices on the economy. So it is therefore in India’s interest to try and defuse any crisis which will affect its relations with oil- and gas-rich nations.
The latest diplomatic red rag for the Iranians came in January 2008, when India conducted its commercial launch of an Israeli spy satellite and Iran strongly condemned this launch. The USA has also offered to resume nuclear cooperation with India, but the India-US agreement on nuclear agreement on nuclear energy cooperation has several implications that will unfold in future, especially on the India’s thrust to import gas from Iran through pipeline.
India has consistently failed in the past years in its approach to issues of energy security. Inept diplomacy led India losing out to China and Russia which maintained close and good relations with Iran for their national interests securing energy security. New Delhi also needs to proceed very carefully if it is interested to secure alliance with Iran for energy security. At this time, India needs Iran to achieve its varied strategic objectives. From Iranian point of view, Iran also needs a good partner like India. This is a must in part because of Iran’s increasing isolation in international circles and also in part because India is an emerging country in the region.
A NEW CHANCE
The recent official visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was preceded by his visit to Sri Lanka and Pakistani. Ahmadinejad announced in New Delhi on April 29 that all the major hurdles in the way of the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project have been cleared, the discussions in this regard would conclude within next 45 days. The construction work for the $ 7.5 billion project is expected to begin next year. The timeframe for signing the necessary agreements was finalised during a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Ahmadinejad. The question of transit fee and other issues between India and Pakistan regarding the 2600-km pipeline was also sorted out during a meeting of the petroleum ministers of the two countries in Islamabad. The pricing factor has also been settled to its satisfaction. Significantly, all these events and progress has been achieved despite stiff opposition by the US. America’s concerns are largely over Iran’s nuclear programme and it has held out the threat of sanctions if non-US companies invest in oil and gas worth $ 20 million in that country. But this sort of pressure appears to have had no bearing whatsoever on fast growing developing economies like India and Pakistan that need access to oil and gas supplies.
India could not afford to lose the opportunity that comes its way. All the countries involved will benefit considerably. Iran’s massive gas reserves can spur economic activity in the region once the pipeline becomes a reality. Relations among the countries involved are bound to improve because of their common stake in the project. It may particularly provide fillip for the efforts for peace between India and Pakistan. President Ahmadinejad’s visit to New Delhi has infused a new life into the relations between India and Iran. It may serve to end the misunderstanding that was caused by India’s vote at the IAEA meeting to discuss the Iranian nuclear issue.
New Delhi is now fully conscious of the significance of India’s ties with Iran. It was underlined by National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan in a recent statement that Iran was just not a matter of international policy but also a domestic issue as India is the second largest Shia Muslim population in the world after Iran. India has a relationship with Iran that goes back several hundreds of years. What happens in Iran has a major impact on us. For the concerns of USA this time India bluntly told Washington that neither New Delhi nor Tehran needed any guidance from any foreign power on how to conduct their bilateral relations. So India learned from past mistakes some lessons and will try to improve its diplomatic relations with Iran.