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P. R. Kumaraswamy, Md. M. Quamar, India’s Saudi Policy,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0794-2_11
CHAPTER 11Challenges
India’s challenges in transforming its relations with Saudi Arabia into a
political friendship through stable and sustained economic partnership
come against the backdrop of many bilateral, regional and international
problems. Some are structural and organizational over which India has no
influence, let alone control; some are insurmountable and some require a
fundamental shift in how India looks at and deals with the outside world.
As it was progressing economically, India has been witnessing a turbulent,
less stable, muddier, complex Middle East with growing regional uncer-
tainty and external intervention. Internal cohesion in some gave way to
blurring allies and friends and frenemies and strange bedfellows replace
traditional friends and enemies. Monarchies are drifting towards socialism
and accountable governance while republican regimes are more comfort-
able with dynastic politics and crony capitalism.
Much of these flux in the Middle East are linked to two catalytic events
in recent years. The first one was the September 11 terror attacks, which
raised doubts about the traditional American approach towards ‘friendly’
dictators and extremism. National interest and energy security consider-
ations subsumed the ideological and philosophical differences between the
West and the conservative Arab monarchies. The age of pretention was
shattered when the Twin Towers collapsed. However, the manner in which
the Bush Administration responded to the largest single act of terrorism
became the remedy worse than the disease. The War on Terror, first in
Afghanistan and then in Iraq, created a backlash from which the Middle