NEW DELHI -To deter Pakistan, India to make strategic shift to Saudi ArabiaIn future. India seriously consider deepening economic links with oil andenergy-rich Saudi Arabia to prevent Pakistan from bringing New Delhi’s oiland gas assets into Islamabad’s strategic calculations.
The suggestion comes due to ongoing tensions between India and Pakistanover New Delhi’s move to change the quasi-autonomous status of Jammu andKashmir and concerns over lack of access to oil imports because of USthreats to impose “The Countering America’s Adversaries Through SanctionsAct” (CAATSA) on any country commercially engaging with oil importing giantIran, including India.
Given the current geopolitical dynamics, especially in the regionalcontext, India would do well to promote cross-country investments with SaudiArabia, a country which has considerable leverage over Pakistanlink,said Vikram Singh Mehta, Senior Fellow at Brookings India, a NewDelhi-based think tank.
“Were Saudi invested in Indian oil and gas assets, it might deter Pakistanfrom bringing these assets (of New Delhi) into their strategic calculus,”Mehta says in an article published in the Indian daily Financial Express.
Mehta said New Delhi should seek Riyadh’s investment in three initiativeslinknamely(1) The $40 billion joint venture refinery project in Ratnagiri district ofthe state of Maharashtra (2) A proposed investment by Saudi Aramco, SaudiArabia’s national petroleum and natural gas company, in India’s RelianceIndustries, which would “secure a captive outlet for 500,000 barrels a dayof its crude oil and a foothold in India’s downstream market” and (3)Purchase a stake in Saudi Aramco’s planned international public offer (IPO)of up to 5 percent of its shares which would deepen Riyadh’s commitment tocurb attempted Pakistani adventurism.
Maintaining that Islamabad has been “irresponsible” in introducing thenuclear option in its diplomatic diatribe against New Delhi following thelatter’s move to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s quasi-autonomous status, Mehtasays Riyadh can tell Pakistan to tone down its rhetoric as Islamabad isaware that its survivallinkisdependent on receiving Saudi economic largesse, Sputnik has reported.
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“Pakistan… cannot afford to ignore Saudi economic interests when war-gamingan offensive strategy against India,” he said.
Mehta added that the four attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil and gasinfrastructure between May and September did compel India to “contemplatedrawing on its strategic reserves and also look for alternative supplies.”
New Delhi also asked “questions” about the sustainability of “regionalstatus quo and Middle East geopolitics, and how might the US react,” headded.
