201the former rivals have been substantial (Raja Mohan 2016 ; Rajagopalan
2017 ; Madan 2014 ). India’s nuclear tests in May 1998 were the turning
point and resulted in both countries seeking to discover and in the process
accommodate each other’s security concerns. The Indo-US civil nuclear
agreement of 2005 formalized their newly found friendship and since then
there have been growing political, military and strategic understandings
between the two.
Thus, India’s greater strategic engagement with the US comes at a time
when the latter’s influence in the Gulf region is on the wane. If the Gulf is
losing its erstwhile sheen, the US is increasingly seen as a less dependable
ally by the conservative regimes. Therefore, India will have to deal and
consolidate its ties with Saudi Arabia without benefitting from the pro-
longed American presence and influence in the region.
China
The end of the Cold War and the diminishing influence of Pakistan upon
India’s foreign policy coincided with the People’s Republic of China
emerging as the new player in the Persian Gulf region. Though the Chinese
diplomatic engagement with the Middle East originated in the Bandung
Conference of 1955 (Shichor 1979 , 55), its fortunes in the Gulf region
had to wait until the 1970s. Up to that point Republican Iraq which rec-
ognized the PRC in 1958 was the only Gulf country with which it had
formal political relations. The process began with the Kuwaiti recognition
in 1971 and was followed by the establishment of ties with Iran (1971),
Oman (1978), the UAE (1984), Qatar (1988) and Bahrain (1989).
Though there were military transactions during the Iran-Iraq War
(1980–88), the Sino-Saudi normalization had to wait until the dying days
of the Cold War (Al-Tamimi 2014 ). Amidst the growing tensions over
Iraqi claims on Kuwait on 21 July 1990 both countries announced the
establishment of diplomatic relations and since then progress has been
significant and encompasses economic, political, energy and cultural
aspects.
As Joseph Cheng observes,
In view of the setbacks in relations with the West because of domestic tur-
moil, China was eager to secure diplomatic achievements in the Third
World. It was said that diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia would facili-
tate Chinese Muslim to attend the haj, sending Islamic scholars to partici-
pate in Islamic conferences abroad, dispatching trade delegations to Riyadh,
and even selling missiles to the country. (Cheng 2016 , 37)INTERNATIONAL FACTORS