An Asian Entente: India, Iran, Israel

ajtr

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An Asian Entente: India, Iran, Israel


Of George W. Bush's infamous axis of evil, Iraq simmers, North Korea waxes and wanes, only Iran remains firmly in Obama's crosshairs. Two of his closest allies, Israel and India, are now on the outs with Obama. In 1907, erstwhile adversaries England, France, and Russia formed the Triple Entente, generating enduring peace between them and claiming the twentieth century for the West. At the dawn of the twenty-first, India, Iran, and Israel have the opportunity to come together and transform it to an Asian one.

Sounds like a pipe dream? At first glance, maybe so. Iran and Israel are constantly at loggerheads, aiming bombastic rhetoric at each other. All three countries have distinct ethnic, religious, and linguistic identities. But so did the European powers. And, like them, the Asians are confronted with common challenges and coalescing interests. First, each one fears a return of the Taliban. India and Israel worry that a nuke in the Taliban's hands is a recipe for blackmail and disaster. India moreover is worried stiff that Obama's Af-Pak policy will embolden Pakistan to wrest Kashmir away from it. Leave aside the Americans, with even Hamid Karzai making feverish overtures to the Taliban-Pakistan combine, India's over $1 billion investment in Afghanistan since 9/11 promises to come to naught.

Iran, too, has not forgotten how the Sunni Taliban oppressed Afghani Shias. A joint Indian, Iranian and Israeli plan for Afghanistan could well keep the Taliban at bay. Enmeshed in an Asian net, Kabul would have difficulty flaring over just as Germany has been kept under the wraps of the European Union for the last fifty years.

Success in keeping Afghanistan calm will confer on all three countries immense prestige, which is what they really crave. Israel wants recognition of the Muslim world. A concordat with Iran would earn it not just Shiite goodwill, it will also put pressure on key Sunni hold-outs such as Saudi Arabia to follow suit. Iran and India are both keen to recapture the glory of their ancient civilizations. Iran's muscle flexing has perhaps less to do with bolstering its security as with posturing for respect.

India already counts itself as a global player but has been brought down a peg or two lately. Bush built it up as a counterweight against China, Obama has virtually excluded it from his Af-Pak policy. New Delhi has perforce had to learn to be master of its destiny. To swing the nuclear deal with Bush, it antagonized the Iranians by voting against them at the International Atomic Energy Agency. Now anxious to repair relations, it is opposing international sanctions against Teheran. Israel too is making obvious its intentions of charting course independently of the Americans.

Starved of energy, Israel and India need reliable sources. Iran is flush with oil and gas. But it lacks extraction technology as well as access to ready markets. India and Israel can provide both in good measure. A much-ballyhooed gas pipeline from Iran to India got clogged by the latter's embrace of the U.S. With that relationship fraying, pipeline discussions are back on track.

On the whole, India has maintained good ties with both Israel and Iran. Diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv were established in 1992, and non-military trade has blossomed since to nearly $3 billion annually. Perhaps more significantly, Israel has become India's second largest defense supplier, with sales of around $9 billion. With Iran, India's 20 million Shia population reinforces mutual civilizational links. Iran remains the only Islamic country to have backed India's case on Kashmir.

A concordat between the three promises way too much--security, recognition, energy--to be sabotaged by needless bellicosity. In the seventies, Pakistan served as a conduit between bickering America and China, instigating a stunning turnaround in their relations. To extend its influence, India has been crafting alliances in far-flung places (BRIC with Brazil, Russia, and China; IBSA with Brazil and South Africa.) Why not take a leaf out of its arch-rival's book and exert closer to home in bringing Israel and Iran together?
 

Yusuf

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who is the writer of this? Its not only a pipe dream but downright non sense. Imagine he compares afghanistan with germany. What is wrong with him??

What civilizational links do the 20 million indian shias have with iran? India as a whole has for sure, but why get the religious angle?

Israel and iran will never ever see eye to eye. Israel is not a master of extraction tech nor is it a huge market for iranian oil and gas. India is and is already a big customer of iran plus other cooperation like the port india has built there.

All in all, the comparison itself is wrong overall, india israel and iran are not england, france and russia. and these countries certainly did not dominate the 20th century. They lived in the shadow of the 2 superpowers.
 

ajtr

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Sunil Sharan
Director GE Smart Grid Initiative 08-09


Sunil Sharan is a recognized thought leader in clean energy and on South Asia, with his op-eds on the subjects having been featured in leading global publications, including The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Dawn, and The Statesman. Sharan led General Electric's Smart Grid Initiative as its Director in 2008-09, and developed and implemented a global strategy for the company.

Prior to GE Sharan spent eight years building clean-energy businesses for Echelon and Terranova (solar energy.) At Echelon, Sharan founded the smart grid business unit and grew it to annual revenue of $100 million by leading the development of new products, market channels, and cutting-edge value propositions and business cases. He helped create what is now the world's most widely adopted smart metering system, with over 30 million smart meters powered by Echelon's technology deployed worldwide.

Sharan has extensive experience in clean-energy policy making. In 2001, along with two industry colleagues, Sharan founded the trade association Demand Response and Smart Grid Coalition that has since grown to include over 40 leading providers of energy technologies and services, including Google, GE, and IBM. He concertedly lobbied federal and state energy regulators and legislators over a six-year period and finally convinced them on the benefits of the smart grid, resulting in the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 recommending each state to deploy smart meters as well as the governments of California and Ontario, Canada financing $3 billion for their statewide rollout. Prior tothe energy sector, Sharan worked for Dell and L'Oréal, and as an entrepreneur.

Sharan holds a master of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA and a master of science in physics and bachelor of science in electrical engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science,Pilani, India. He has completed the Jean Monnet Program in business and economics at the Ecole Polytechnique, Paris. He is fluent in English, French, and Hindi, with intermediate proficiency in German.
 

Yusuf

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he should concentrate on energy sector than geopolitics for sure.
 

Phenom

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Clearly this is a bad article. Israel doesn't care about Taliban, it cares far more about Ahmedinajad running around with a nuke.
An alliance between Israel and Iran is downright stupid.
 

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