by New Delhi Maintains Strategic Relationship With Israel, Buys Oil From Iran Indirectly, Calls for Peace, Abstains at UN; All of These
Reported by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat.
NEW DELHI, India — India has maintained its position on the Iran war, which is: no position, all positions, a position of strategic ambiguity that has been described by Indian foreign policy officials as “independent thinking” and by foreign policy analysts as “hedging with remarkable discipline.” New Delhi abstained on the UN Security Council resolution condemning the initial US strikes, called for “immediate cessation of hostilities” in a statement that no party to the hostilities received as binding, maintained its defense cooperation memoranda with Israel, purchased Russian crude that partially replaced Iranian supply through the secondary market, and expressed “deep concern” at the humanitarian situation, which is the diplomatic phrase that expresses concern without specifying toward whom or at what.
India’s foreign policy posture during the Iran war is, structurally, the same posture it maintained during the Russia-Ukraine war: non-alignment that is not neutrality, autonomy that is not isolation, and a calculation of national interest that prioritizes energy security, trade relationships, and strategic flexibility over the kind of clear alignment that allies want and that costs diplomatic options India prefers to maintain. This is a coherent policy. It produces results that benefit India. It also produces, as a byproduct, the kind of multilateral relationship where India is important to everyone and committed to no one, which is either a strength or a vulnerability depending on whether you need India to be there when it matters.
The Israel Dimension
India-Israel relations have been warm for three decades, progressing from back-channel to fully diplomatic and developing into a substantive defense and technology partnership under Modi. Israeli agricultural technology is deployed across India. Indian IT companies have significant Israeli clients. Defense cooperation includes drone technology, missile systems, and military intelligence sharing. Modi’s personal warmth toward Netanyahu is genuine, which is also politically useful domestically given India’s Hindu nationalist politics and the specific frame through which that politics views Israel.
The warmth did not translate into Indian support for the US military action against Iran, because that support would have cost India its oil procurement flexibility, its relationship with Gulf Arab states whose remittance flows from 8 million Indian workers represent a significant economic reality, and its relationship with Russia, whose energy India needs and whose diplomatic support India values in international forums. The warmth remained. The support did not appear. Modi’s embrace photos are warm. India’s vote at the UN is absent. Both things are simultaneously true, which is New Delhi’s preferred geopolitical condition.
The Iran Oil History
Before the US reimposed sanctions on Iran in 2018, India was one of Iran’s largest oil customers. The sanctions reduced that relationship significantly, though not entirely, as India purchased some Iranian oil through third-party arrangements that provided deniability alongside the barrels. The current conflict has suspended direct Iranian oil exports further, which India is replacing through Russian, Gulf, and West African sourcing, while maintaining the posture of a country that would prefer Iran to be stable and exporting, not because of fondness for the Iranian government but because Iranian oil was competitively priced and reliably available, which are the two things energy-importing countries care about regardless of what they say at the UN.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs publishes the official position statements on the Iran conflict and the diplomatic framework India is using to navigate it. The official positions are available, diplomatic, and calibrated. The unofficial positions are available, somewhat less diplomatic, and more informative. The gap between them is where Indian foreign policy actually lives, as it does in most countries, and where analysts spend their professional time, reading official statements with the awareness that the most important words are the ones that were chosen not to be there.
India will maintain its position. The position is: all positions, no commitments, strategic flexibility, and deep concern. It is, as positions go, durable. The fuel is expensive. The abstentions continue. The hugs remain warm. This is Indian foreign policy, described accurately, which is the best anyone can do with something this deliberately opaque.
For foreign policy you can read several ways, see The Daily Mash.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
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