Foreign policy expert breaks down India’s options on Mecca pact (VIDEO)
India has its work cut out in responding effectively to the Mecca pact signed last week between Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and nuclear-armed neighbor Pakistan, an international relations expert has said.
The pact between the three Sunni Muslim countries has created a new “worrisome reality” for India, Robinder Nath Sachdev told RT India on Tuesday.
He noted that while there is not much clarity on whether the treaty envisages a collective defense on the lines of NATO’s Article 5 commitment, it still gives nuclear-armed Pakistan an edge if hostilities break out with India. The two South Asian nations briefly clashed last year with missiles and drones, following a terrorist attack in Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad.
Riyadh could provide money and military assets to its new treaty partner in this situation, even if it doesn’t take part in the conflict directly, Sachdev, the president of the independent think tank Imagindia Institute, said.
The key, he said, is for India to look inside and “estimate what all we need to do, shift in order to counter this new reality, which is a worrisome reality.”
India has to beef up its defense industry manufacturing base and look at technologies of the future, Sachdev said. Secondly, it will have to look at “our other partnerships with other nations, including, of course, Russia.”
The country has to “go deeper and wider” with existing partners and new partners, he said, adding that the question should be “how much… further can we progress down a mutual, stronger partnership?
The bottom line, he said, is “much more work has to be done in India within the country” as it addresses the Mecca pact.
Sachdev said India will have to de-hyphenate its economic partnership with Saudi Arabia from the security relations that Riyadh has developed with Islamabad. “That would be one relationship which India… needs to address and nurture.”
The Indian Foreign Ministry said it is closely following the developments. “India remains fully committed to meeting or safeguarding its national interests and will take all necessary measures in this regard,” spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Tuesday.
