India bid to carve out space amid Middle-East tensions
Sandeep Dikshit
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 5
The absence of any American outreach to India after the assassination of Iranian Quds Force chief Maj. Gen Qassem Soleimani had raised eyebrows in strategic circles here till External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had a conversation with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo late on Sunday.
Jaishankar then made up for India’s low profile so far by talking to Foreign Ministers of Iran, Oman and the UAE. “Such major development in India’s neighbourhood and yet no one phones PM or EAM. Look at some of intense diplomatic traffic in the past 24 hours,” pointed out former diplomat MK Bhadrakumar. It was not known if the calls were initiated from the Indian side.
After a conversation with his counterpart Javad Zarif, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar noted that the developments in the Middle East had taken a very serious turn and India remained deeply concerned about the levels of tension. “We agreed to remain in touch,” he said about his conversation with Zarif. Other leaders who spoke with either Zarif or the Iranian President were Lavrov, Yang and Turkish President Recep Erdogan.
The South Block has tried to convey that outgoing Indian Ambassador Harsh Vardhan Shringla was briefed by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. However, due to a severe mismatch of ranks, such a conversation on a taking-leave call-on can hardly be compared with the weightiness imparted by telephonic talks between peers or near-peers.
Delhi, however, has managed to convey its thinking on the killing of Soleimani through a statement and it is not close to the American position. Though the statement did not take his name, it described Soleimani as “senior Iranian leader”, thus distancing New Delhi from the description by the US.
Soon after the killing of Soleimani on January 3, Pompeo speed-dialled eight contemporaries with a common message to them all – US had taken defensive action by killing Qassem Soleimani in response to imminent threats to American lives.
Among those Pompeo called up were Chinese Politburo member Yang Jiechi, German FM Heiko Maas, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, French FM Jean-Yves Le Drian, Pakistani Chief of Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, Russian FM Sergei Lavrov and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.
The eight represent countries with an array of interests in Iran — from neighbours to America’s strategic allies as well as foes — but India was not among them, with the calls stopping at Pakistan, where Pompeo opted for the army chief instead of the civilian Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
The next day, Pompeo again called up seven world leaders; this time all near-neighbours of Iran, including Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
