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Except for the bonhomie exhibited during the Nehru-Nasser phase, the
Middle East had never figured prominently in Indian diplomatic radar and
even that phase was not without its share of difficulties. Perceived sympathy
for Nasser became problematic when Saudi-Egyptian differences flared up
and India found itself at the receiving end when Riyadh moved closer to
Pakistan. Otherwise, the Middle East has been in a diplomatic limbo dur-
ing much of the Cold War and did not receive attention commensurate to
its importance, both in the regional context and towards India. And this
was to change after 2014.
Modi’s ApproAch to Middle eAst
Though there were visits by leaders and officials to the region, prime min-
isterial visits assume importance primarily because they set the direction
and agenda of bilateral engagements and provide the impetus to the oth-
erwise lethargic process entangled in bureaucratic cobwebs. The frequency
with which the prime minister meets a foreign leader becomes a sign of
importance that country attracts in India’s foreign policy calculations.
According to Egyptian journalist Mohammed Heikal, between February
1953 and July 1955 alone, Nehru and Nasser had met as many as eight
times (Heikal 1973 , 280). This provided the template for the Nehru-
Nasser bonhomie whose influence continued even after Nehru’s death in
May 1964.
Seen in that context, the pre-2014 Indian engagement with the Middle
East does not correspond to the platitudes that one finds in official state-
ments. The rhetoric of ‘extended neighbourhood,’ ‘civilizational ties’ or
‘historical links’ does not correspond to high-level political visits to the
region. Besides Egypt, Prime Minister Nehru visited Saudi Arabia (1956)
Iran (1959), Lebanon (1956 and 1960) and Syria (1956, 1957), (UAR)
(1960), Sudan (1957), Iran (1959 and 1963) and Turkey (1960). His
successor Lal Bahadur Shastri went to Cairo for the second NAM summit
in September 1964. As prime minister, Indira Gandhi visited Egypt (1966,
1970), Lebanon (1971), Algeria (1973), Iran (1974), Iraq (1975), Kuwait
and UAE (1981), Saudi Arabia (1982), and Libya and Tunisia (1984).
If Prime Minister Morarji Desai went to Iran in June 1977, Rajiv
Gandhi undertook visits to Egypt and Algeria (June 1985), Oman
(November 1985), Syria (June 1988), and Turkey and Jordan (July 1988).
P. V. Narasimha Rao went to Tunisia (1992), Iran (1993), Oman (1993)
and Egypt (1995). The perceived Indian sympathy for Iraq during the
P. R. KUMARASWAMY AND MD. M. QUAMAR