The attack on Israeli embassy staff in New Delhi on Monday has brought into sharp focus India’s growing dilemma. While India has strong ties with Israel, it has robust trade ties with Iran owing to its growing energy needs, and is one of Iran’s largest crude oil customers
New Delhi also has burgeoning ties with Israel to tend to, reports The Wall Street Journal. “India’s defense purchases from Israel — part of a high-priority modernization of the country’s armed forces after decades of neglect — include surface-to-air missiles and surveillance and missile defense technology. The countries also share the experience of being frequent targets of terrorist attacks.
“If Indian investigators ultimately determine Iran was involved in the attack, there would be enormous domestic and international pressure on India to back away from supporting Iran and perhaps even curb its oil purchases, analysts say.
“Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, said Monday’s attack ‘further complicates India’s policy dilemmas” regarding its relationship with Iran.
” ‘The fact is that it won’t be easy for India to just snap its ties with Iran, but whatever happened yesterday adds to the pressure,’ Mr. Chellaney said. He said India could become a ‘proxy battleground’ amid geopolitical tensions between the West and Iran.”
More here…
In spite of sanctions by the US and the European Union and Israel linking Tehran to the attack on an Israeli embassy car here, India is set to step up its energy and business ties with Iran, with a commerce ministry team going there shortly to explore new opportunities. The team is expected to go to Tehran later this month to discuss steps to expand India’s trade with Iran, part of a larger strategy to pay for Iranian oil, highly-placed sources told IANS.
“Despite the Western sanctions on Iran, India recently sealed a payment mechanism under which Indian companies will pay for 45 percent of their crude oil imports from Iran in rupees.
“Not just oil, India is also stepping up the refurbishing of the Chabahar Port in Iran and a strategic railway link that will offer it direct access to Afghanistan and the energy-rich Central Asia.” More here…
Meanwhile Israeli diplomats in India admit the terror attacks’ mild consequences are a very fortunate, and could have ended much worse, especially if Yehoshua-Koren’s children happened to have been in the car at the time of the explosion.
“We were always warned, and even more so recently, that we’re a target,” an Israeli diplomat in the Israeli embassy in India said. “But you don’t really understand it until it happens. We will continue working and doing what needs to be done, but one must admit given that we have families, children – it is scary.” More here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.