Iran breakthrough a triumph for Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have often been pilloried for seeming to be barely in India in his first two years in office, so often was his globetrotting diplomacy taking him around in that time. While foreign policy successes are not necessarily driven by an individual, even if he is the Prime Minister, it is quite apparent that Mr Modi has hit it off with many heads of state and government.

Mr Modi’s visit to Iran on the eve of his completing two years in office is a case in point. India’s strategic gain in the promised unfettered access to developing Chabahar port on the southern coast of Iran would be immeasurable, provided, of course, that India is able to keep to project deadlines. The bypassing of Pakistan logistically and counterbalancing China’s development of Gwadar port in Pakistan come like two birds with one stone, besides facilitating Afghanistan’s access to the world.

This is the first visit by an Indian PM in 15 years to Iran, but then few could have made headway in such spectacular manner in the intervening time as that country was isolated internationally and under sanctions until a month ago when it signed a milestone nuclear accord with the US and other world powers after curtailing its nuclear programme. In any case, India and Tehran enjoyed strong bilateral ties even when sanctions applied as India was the second-largest buyer of Iranian crude. What the deals signed now by Mr Modi in Iran signify is a gigantic breakthrough for trade with Iran as well as the strategic progress through Chabahar. In a sense, Mr Modi was in the right place at the right time. But then much the same could be said of other diplomatic initiatives of which he has been the lead figure in the last 24 months.

In bringing Riyadh and Tehran closer to India even as the country’s diplomatic footprint expanded exponentially in West Asia in two years, Mr Modi and his foreign office mandarins have elevated India’s profile in a vital region considering how important such initiatives were to also diffuse the impact on India of ISIS’ recruitment of Indians as well as Indian citizens affected in the strife-torn areas around. In obtaining Saudi cooperation towards combating terrorism, India has scored many valuable points while counterbalancing Pakistan’s obviously closer links to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and many other countries in the region.

There may have been a number of legacies Mr Modi may have inherited in foreign policy, but there is no doubt there have been more successes than failures on the broad canvas of diplomacy, although India struggled nearer home as with Nepal, Pakistan and China. Even then, a milestone land boundary agreement with Bangladesh would show that India under Mr Modi has notched several gains between May 2014 and now.