From focusing on immediate neighbourhood to the Look-East policy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the last leg of his second year in office, has shifted his diplomatic activism towards the Persian Gulf – an extended neighbourhod.
On Monday, Modi, on a significant trip to Iran, addressed a joint press conference with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. He said the two countries would jointly combat terror, radicalism and cyber crime and the two sides signed 12 agreements, including a "milestone" pact on developing the key Chabahar port to provide India access to Central Asia and Afghanistan, circumventing Pakistan.
Modi's visit to Iran comes after his visit to the UAE and Saudi Arabia and ahead of trips to Qatar, Israel and Palestine. The visit coincides with the flux in West Asia, the rise of the IS and the fierce rivalry between Saudi Arabia, Iran and Israel.
Both sides agreed to share intelligence in a bid to fight terrorism that is "rife and rampant" in the region. Both countries, in the past, had agreed to back Northern Alliance in Afghanistan to combat the Taliban. "India and Iran share a crucial stake in peace, stability and prosperity in the region. We also have shared concerns over the spread of forces of instability, radicalism and terror in our region," Modi said after bilateral and delegation-level talks with the Iranian leadership.
"Due to the importance of stability and security in the region, especially in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen...because a big problem of terrorism was running rife and rampant in the region, the two countries discussed about political issues and have agreed to cooperate on intelligence- sharing," Rouhani said.
The two countries also decided to enhance interaction between their defence and security institutions on regional and maritime security. Iran's intelligence minister Mahmoud Alavi recently claimed having dismantled more than 20 terror groups planning terrorist activities inside the country during the last Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19).
On April 22, the head of the Ansar al-Forqan terrorist group, Hesham Azizi, and two other members were killed by Iranian security forces in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan. Two other members of the group were captured. Iranian intelligence operatives play key advisory roles in Syria and Iraq.
Meena Singh Roy at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis says that the increasing instability in Afghanistan and the rise of the IS are viewed by both as serious security challenges. Describing the PM's visit significant, Brig N K Bhatia (retd), former chief instructor at the Military Intelligence School, believes that an immediate takeaway was establishing Indian footprints in the region; with the most significant being India getting a foothold in the Strait of Hormuz and onwards to Persian Gulf to check the expanding Chinese designs in the region.
He believed that Chabahar, with better links to Central Asia, Iran and Afghanistan, will facilitate faster trade to South East Asia in comparison to Pakistan's Gwadar.
