DO NOT UPROOT INDIA'S WEST ASIA MOORINGS

New Delhi’s relationship with Tel Aviv has transformed phenomenally in recent years to become a strategic bridge. But there are other ties in the region India can ill afford to ignore

- M K BHADRAKUMAR

NAVIGATING geopolitical shoals is tricky business in international diplomacy. Realism prevails. But it is not as if actions become a matter of expediency and subject to personal whims and fancies, or that morality and legality of actions become irrelevant. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s overnight visit to Israel is a case in point. The visit is untimely, unwarranted and out of sync with regional and international politics. It is taking place at a time when the fog of war is descending on the state of Israel.

The ministry of external affairs did not give a briefing on the visit. Perhaps, public accountability for foreign policy actions is no longer required. Or, perhaps, the geopolitical headwinds unnerve Delhi.

What we know about the visit came from Tel Aviv. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally undertook the media management, calling Modi a ‘personal friend’, which is rather strange at that level. Netanyahu is a skilled and experienced diplomat and is very focused on what he seeks to extract out of anyone. Quite obviously, at a time when the world avoids socialising with Netanyahu, Modi’s visit came like celestial manna to the beleaguered Israeli leader who is in a crucial election cycle that may take him to prison unless he retains immunity in office from prosecution. It is Howdy Modi 2.0. But why should it be obligatory on Modi’s part?