India’s Pivot in the Middle East

Grand Tamasha

As the fighting between Israel and Hamas intensifies, the world is bracing for the widening of a conflict that has the potential to escalate quickly and bring in outside powers from the region and beyond.

India’s position in the aftermath of the horrific Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7th—and the subsequent Israeli military response—has been noteworthy. Unlike many countries in the Global South, which offered qualified support for Israel after the attacks and have positioned themselves with the Palestinian cause, India’s initial response made no mention of Gaza at all.

To make sense of India’s evolving position and the ways in which its Middle East policy has shifted over the decades, Milan is joined on the show this week by the political scientist Nicolas Blarel. Nicolas is Associate Professor of International Relations at the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University in The Netherlands and the author of The Evolution of India's Israel Policy: Continuity, Change, and Compromise since 1922.

Milan and Nicolas discuss India’s response to the conflict in Israel-Palestine, its growing embrace of Israel, and the growing bilateral security partnership. Plus, the two discuss the Modi government’s simultaneous outreach to Gulf Arab states and the factors that could shape how India responds to an expanded regional conflict.

Episode notes:

Crystal A. Ennis and Nicolas Blarel, eds., The South Asia to Gulf Migration Governance Complex (Bristol, UK: Bristol University Press, 2022).

Nicolas Blarel, The Evolution of India's Israel Policy: Continuity, Change, and Compromise since 1922 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).

Sumit Ganguly and Nicolas Blarel, “Modi’s Comments on Israel-Gaza War Signal Shift,” Foreign Policy, October 12, 2023.

Nicolas Blarel, “Navigating Asian Rivalries: Israel’s ties with China and India,” National University of Singapore-Middle East Institute, Singapore Insights No. 300, July 25, 2023.