PANJIM: The situation in the Gulf is changing faster than India anticipated; therefore, the government needs to analyse the war more clearly and safeguard the country’s interests, veteran author, academician and international affairs commentator, Happymon Jacob said here on Saturday.
He was speaking on ‘Ten reflections on the Iran war: views from Delhi,’ part of the International Centre of Goa Public Lecture series.
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“The view from Delhi is that things are changing faster than we anticipated and we need to get back to analysing the war more clearly. For about two months, India was somewhat quiet and was waiting for the Iran war to play out,” Jacob said.
But it appears the conflict is not going to play out anytime soon and India will have to sort of look at its interests in the new geopolitical order emerging in the Middle East.
“This explains Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United Arab Emirates and probably a new enthusiasm in Delhi to sort of see what’s happening through the eyes of various international actors,” he said.
Jacob, who is also the founder and director of the Council for Strategic and Defense Research (CSDR), an independent think tank, added that the simple message for the Government of India is that it can’t sit back and wait for things to fall in place.
“We have to take action. We have to sort of get into the thick of things and look at the country’s geopolitical interests in the new world order that is emerging. The involvement of parties like Russia and China shows that this war now has wider implications. This is not a war between the United States and Iran or Israel versus Iran. This is a war that is having wider regional and global implications. Everyone is trying to safeguard their interests, hence the involvement,” he said.
Speaking about the recent decision by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to move out of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Jacob said that it tells about the difficulties that the UAE, has with Saudi Arabia, in Yemen, in OPEC and vis-à-vis their respective position with Israel. It’s more of a regional game.
“India is of course on the right side of UAE and therefore that’s going to help us. But it’s more about the regional geopolitical realities than anything else. There will be a new world order for sure after the war ends. But, contrary to the common perception, United States of America will remain the superpower. While the US dollar will decline, but their material power is huge. Therefore it’s going to remain as a consequential power. There is no question of Iran rising at the expense of the United States,” he said.
