Connectivity Crucial for Stability in West Asia: Gopal Baglay

December 03, 2015

New Delhi: Calling Iran and India as significant actors in the region, Shri Gopal Baglay, Joint Secretary (PAI & STATES), Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, today implored the two nations to strengthen stability in West Asia through economic, cultural and political relations. Shri Baglay was delivering a key note address at a Bilateral Dialogue on ‘Geo-Strategic Dynamics in West Asia: India-Iran Cooperation’ organized jointly by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) and Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), Tehran on December 3-4, 2015.

Referring to connectivity as crucial to stability in the region, Shri Baglay noted that the development of the North-South Corridor, railways, shipping etc can act as a catalyst in ushering in regional stability.

Speaking on the need for developing a comprehensive Security Framework for the region, Shri Baglay noted that issues, including cyber security, narcotics and maritime security should be an integral part of the security dialogue between the countries of West Asia. The countries in the region should stop ‘the use of terrorism as a state policy’, he insisted. “We should ensure collectively that there are no safe havens for terrorist outfits in the region”, he added.

Also speaking on the occasion. Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in New Delhi, HE Gholamreza Ansari advocated for a ‘comprehensive approach’ towards combating terrorism and extremism that infests the region. Military action in isolation is not enough to combat the problem, he stressed.

Ambassador Ansari added that India, with its experience in dealing with terrorism, can play a crucial role in cooperating with Iran to combat extremism in the region. Comparing terrorism to cancer, he pointed out that like cancer, terrorism also needs to be rooted out completely for prolonged peace and stability in West Asia. “There is no such thing as good terrorism and bad terrorism” he concluded.

With major developments taking place in the geo-political landscape of the West Asia, the region has become the epicentre of the global attention. In past three years, the conflict in Iraq and Syria have intensified, the Yemen crisis continues to persist without any solution, and violent activities of Daesh (or IS) and its increasing influence beyond the West Asian region has become a major challenge. Besides, Russia’s renewed interest and military intervention in Syria to fight Daesh has exposed the region to completely new situation reflecting the complexities of external interventions. The Iran-US détente has been a positive development in the region. However, the future of Iran-US relations is not yet very clear. These new developments have exposed India and Iran to completely new set of challenges, issues and conditions, the speakers opined.

Attended by experts from both sides, the IDSA-IPIS Dialogue, is 11th in the series of bilateral interactions, is aimed at generating focused and informed deliberations on the India-Iran relationship with a special focus on the changing security paradigm in West Asia and India-Iran Engagement.