AA Edit | PM Visit To Boost West Asia Ties

India’s latest engagement with Jordan and Oman through Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit will help in sustaining the momentum in linking with countries in the region that happened in the PM’s first term. In the last decade, the engagement with West Asia has gathered greater depth than just buying oil from there and India promoting its export of labour and reaping the benefits of inward remittances.

A free trade agreement with Oman by which India may benefit from easier access to the GCC and other nations in the vicinity, MoUs with Jordan on green energy and water resource management and an upgrading of ties with Ethiopia to a “strategic partnership” are signposts to mutual gains that became visible with the state visit that also did much to enhance the connection with a globally spreading Indian diaspora.

As a fellow “traveller” in the Global South, Ethiopia welcomed India’s PM with warmth as was evident in the reception to his speech to the Ethiopian parliament espousing common causes like concern over climate change induced by global warming and its effects on the less prosperous nations that are still awaiting funding guarantees from the developed nations for mitigation.

With so much going on in Parliament regarding new bills, a few of which have proved controversial to contentious, the PM’s visit at such a time may have been commented upon, adversely, especially by the opposition. It is, however, important to keep global ties going at a time when not only India’s economic heft but also its strength in being one of the meaningful voices of the Global South is being recognised the world over.

Given the post-Trump 2.0 realignment of global ties in the light of impediments to trade, it is incumbent on India to try and expand its trade horizons and look for wider scope for its exports while looking for more opportunities to share its expertise in areas like digital payments, healthcare and renewable energy. India’s worldview has diversified much in the last decade. It is not incidental that this may have been thrust by the difficulties faced in the immediate neighbourhood as well as alterations in traditional ties with the major economic powers.