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The power shift in favour of Saudi Arabia was sudden and came when
India’s international fortunes were sliding. Nehru’s international stature,
which contributed to India gaining a voice in various international crises
such as the Suez crisis, Vietnam War, Korean War and the Arab-Israeli
conflict, suffered a setback in 1962 over the border conflict with China.
Coming just over a year after the formation of the NAM, the conflict dam-
aged India’s international status, dented its internal confidence and in the
process made it vulnerable to external influences. New Delhi’s growing
identification with Moscow on major international issues since the mid-
1960s and the conclusion of the Friendship Treaty in 1971 were the out-
come of this susceptibility. Though the Bangladesh War of 1971 and the
nuclear test of 1975 partly restored its self-assurance, they also weakened
its diplomatic space vis-à-vis the outside world.
The growing power asymmetry became a handicap in India’s ability to
deal with the Kingdom. As the latter’s influence was on the rise, India’s
was sliding. This was the case until the end of the Cold War and the resul-
tant reorganization of India’s economic and political outlooks. For clarity,
these would be discussed within three broad themes: changing regional
climates in the Middle East and its impact upon bilateral relations; differ-
ing Indo-Saudi worldviews; and limited engagements between the two
countries. Between 1955–56 when King Saud and Prime Minister Nehru
exchanged visits and 1981–82 when Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-
Faisal and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi exchanged visits, the two coun-
tries had only limited contacts. It was only in 1975, soon after the Saudi-led
oil embargo on the US and its allies, that one of the important bilateral
political contacts took place when Saudi Petroleum Minister Ahmed Zaki
Yamani visited India.
Drifting ApArt
In the early 1950s both had opposed the Western bloc politics, but gradu-
ally their worldviews differed and drifted apart. Their membership in the
emerging Afro-Asian solidarity was insufficient to cement an enduring ideo-
logical journey. The NAM held its first summit meeting in Belgrade in the
first week of September 1961, where leaders from 26 countries took part.^1
(^1) This was slightly smaller than the Bandung conference of 1955 where 29 countries took
part. The following countries’ heads of state participated in the Belgrade summit of NAM:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Burma (now Myanmar), Cambodia, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Congo,
Cuba, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Ghana Guinea, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Mali, Morocco,
Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Republic, Yemen and Yugoslavia,
and the following countries were represented by observers: Bolivia, Brazil and Ecuador.
P. R. KUMARASWAMY AND MD. M. QUAMAR