From Caravan Trails to Digital Corridors: How the 2nd India–Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting Reinforces Strategic Symmetry
- Joydeep Chakraborty
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
In a decade defined by disruption, India and the Arab world are discovering the strategic value of alignment.
On 31 January 2026, New Delhi hosted the 2nd India–Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (IAFMM), co-chaired with the United Arab Emirates. It was a gathering heavy with symbolism, but also with consequence. After nearly a decade of dormancy, the forum returned at a moment when stability itself feels negotiable.
In the third decade of the 21st century, wars are redrawing maps, supply chains are being rerouted, and technology is reshaping power itself. As long-standing partnerships come under stress and some begin to fray, others are quietly deepening. India’s engagement with the Arab world is firmly in the second category.
When 22 League of Arab States gathered in New Delhi in January 2026, it was not merely for dialogue but to reassess the future of a region and India’s growing role within it. The Arab world is changing. India is changing. And the global order around them is no longer predictable.
A Partnership Rooted in History, Recast for Uncertainty
India–Arab ties are often described as “civilisational,” a word that can feel abstract. Yet those centuries-old connections like maritime trade routes, scholarly exchanges, and shared cultural vocabularies continue to shape modern diplomacy in surprisingly practical ways.
Trade today runs into hundreds of billions. Energy flows keep lights on and industries moving. Migration knits societies together. Beneath the formal language of joint statements lies a dense web of everyday interdependence.
With trade crossing USD 240 billion and millions of lives interlinked across borders, India–Arab relations today are as much about economics as they are about geopolitics.
That economic gravity gives the relationship resilience. It also raises the stakes. When instability grips West Asia, India feels it directly through energy prices, remittances, shipping lanes, and the safety of its vast diaspora.
Prime Minister Modi’s Message: Trust as Strategic Capital
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with Arab Foreign Ministers and heads of delegations was not framed around immediate crises alone. Instead, it drew a longer arc that linked history with ambition.
Beyond protocol and plenaries, the Prime Minister’s engagement with Arab leaders reflected India’s belief that trust built over centuries can be leveraged for 21st-century partnerships.
Modi spoke of people-to-people ties shaped by traders, sailors, scholars, and workers long before modern borders existed. He presented these bonds not as nostalgia, but as strategic capital that can be mobilised for cooperation in technology, healthcare, energy transition, and innovation.
He also reiterated India’s support for the Palestinian people and welcomed ongoing peace efforts, including the Gaza peace plan. The message was consistent with India’s long-held position, whereby it asserts dialogue over division, diplomacy over despair, humanitarian considerations over zero-sum politics.
Jaishankar’s Strategic Diagnosis of a World in Flux
If the Prime Minister sketched the vision, the tone shifted sharply when External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar took the podium. He placed the meeting within a wider global transformation driven by political realignments, technological disruption, demographic pressures, and economic volatility. West Asia, he noted, has experienced these shifts more intensely than most regions.
The Gaza conflict loomed large. Recalling the Sharm-el-Sheikh Peace Summit of October 2025 and UN Security Council Resolution 2803, Jaishankar framed Gaza not as an isolated tragedy but as a test case for international responsibility and collective action.
Crises That Refuse to Stay Local
The Indian Foreign Minister’s remarks implied that instability in West Asia never stays confined. From Sudan’s devastating conflict to Yemen’s impact on maritime navigation, from Lebanon, where Indian troops serve under UNIFIL, to Libya’s stalled national dialogue and Syria’s unresolved future, the region’s crises ripple outward.
For India, proximity amplifies consequence. Energy security, shipping routes, expatriate safety, and diplomatic credibility are all affected. Strengthening peace and stability, Jaishankar argued, is not charity, but a shared responsibility.
Terrorism, particularly cross-border terrorism, was identified as a common and unacceptable threat. While states have the right to defend themselves, he stressed the need for zero tolerance and deeper international cooperation.
From Dialogue to Delivery: How India Built Trust
India’s credibility in the Arab world did not emerge overnight but was rather forged in moments when delivery mattered more than declarations.
In 2015, as Yemen descended into chaos, Operation Raahat became a quiet turning point. Indian naval ships and Air Force aircraft evacuated over 5,600 people, including nearly 2,000 foreign nationals from more than 40 countries. Many were Arab and African citizens.
The decision to help non-Indians reshaped perceptions. India was no longer just a trading partner. It was a dependable actor under fire.
That perception deepened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through Vaccine Maitri, India supplied vaccines to several Arab countries even as global supply chains fractured. For many governments, this gesture elevated India’s standing as a human security partner, not merely an economic one.
Energy, Interdependence, and Strategic Resilience
Energy has long anchored India–Arab relations, but the nature of that relationship is evolving.
A landmark moment came when ADNOC began storing crude oil in India’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve at Mangalore. It was one of the first times an Arab energy major integrated directly into India’s energy security architecture. The move symbolised a shift from transactional trade to shared resilience. Energy cooperation was no longer just about barrels and prices. It was about mutual trust and long-term planning in an uncertain world.
As the energy transition accelerates, this trust will matter even more. Renewables, hydrogen, and technology partnerships are increasingly part of the conversation.
Connectivity and the Rewriting of Economic Geography
Strategic convergence found fresh expression in 2023 with the announcement of the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) at the G20 New Delhi Summit.
By endorsing a connectivity framework spanning ports, railways, digital infrastructure, and energy networks, India and key Arab partners positioned themselves as co-architects of a new economic geography.
This was not about replacing old routes, but about creating alternatives. In a world of chokepoints and contested corridors, IMEC reflects a shared desire for diversified, resilient connectivity.
The Human Infrastructure Behind High Diplomacy
Statistics often dominate discussions of India–Arab ties, but the relationship’s true ballast is human. Across the Gulf and wider Arab region, Indian professionals staff hospitals, build metros, write code, and maintain renewable energy projects. They are embedded in national transformation plans, including Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.
This everyday interdependence gives platforms like the IAFMM real weight. Diplomacy here is not abstract. It touches livelihoods, families, and futures on both sides of the Arabian Sea.
From Institutional Beginnings to Strategic Maturity
What began as structured dialogue in the early 2000s has today matured into one of India’s most consequential regional partnerships.
A 2002 Memorandum of Understanding institutionalised consultations with the League of Arab States. The Arab–India Cooperation Forum followed in 2008, later refined to expand sectoral engagement.
The inaugural IAFMM in Manama in 2016 set priorities across the economy, energy, education, media, and culture. Though envisaged as biennial, the forum fell silent until now.
The 2026 revival in New Delhi, co-chaired with the UAE, reflects renewed political will to elevate collective engagement amid global uncertainty.
Cooperation That Goes Beyond Rhetoric
Today, India enjoys strong partnerships with all 22 LAS members, many upgraded to strategic levels. The cooperation agenda for 2026–28 spans energy, environment, agriculture, tourism, education, culture, and human resource development.
New frontiers are opening too, like digital technologies, space, start-ups, innovation, counter-terrorism, and parliamentary exchanges. The launch of the India–Arab Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture adds institutional muscle to these ambitions, anchoring diplomacy in business-to-business engagement.
A Broader Observation: Why This Moment Matters
The revival of the IAFMM is not accidental as it reflects a shared realisation that middle powers and regional actors must now shape outcomes, not merely react to them.
In a fragmented world, India and the Arab states are finding common ground in pragmatism by eschewing rigid blocs in favour of flexible, interest-based cooperation. This approach may well become a template for Global South diplomacy in the years ahead.
A Partnership That May Shape the Global South
The future agenda is deliberately forward-looking. It prioritises digital economies, innovation, and start-ups alongside traditional trade. It balances energy transition with energy security. It deepens educational and cultural exchanges while strengthening counter-terrorism and maritime cooperation.
Most importantly, it seeks greater institutionalisation by ensuring that momentum survives leadership changes and global shocks. If sustained with institutional depth and economic ambition, the India–Arab partnership could emerge as one of the defining diplomatic architectures of the Global South.
That possibility gives the 2nd IAFMM its larger meaning. This was not merely a meeting revived after a hiatus but rather a recalibration. From civilisational bonds to contemporary statecraft, from humanitarian action to economic corridors, India and the Arab world are aligning not out of sentiment, but necessity.
In a decade defined by disruption, that alignment may prove to be one of the most consequential strategic bets of all.
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