Since the turn of the century, India has strived to pursue a pragmatic, geopolitically-driven policy towards the Islamic Republic of Iran. The foremost source of Iran’s geostrategic value for India is the country’s location at the crossroads of energy trading routes in the Persian Gulf and direct access to the Indian Ocean, which makes it a viable gateway to the Eurasian interior. India’s quest to overcome Pakistan’s refusal of overland access to Afghanistan and Central Asia has put Iran’s Chabahar Port at the heart of a sustained, if contentious, regional connectivity partnership. Secondly, Tehran and New Delhi have a long-standing interest in balancing Pakistan by supporting independent state-building in Afghanistan. Amid ongoing power shifts in the Middle East, Tehran continues to see India as a key partner in countering Pakistan’s alignment with Iran’s regional rivals. India’s perseverance in engaging with Iran despite its own growing alignment with the United States and its Middle Eastern allies will remain a crucial illustration of its strategic autonomy.
As India contemplates a greater role in the Middle East, Iran’s geopolitical relevance remains undiminished…India’s growing alignment with the United States and its allies will push it to take a more critical view of destabilising aspects of Iran’s non-state policy
Steering clear of securitization of Iran
The 2005 India-US civil nuclear agreement ended India’s nuclear isolation and paved the way for an India-US global strategic partnership based on Washington’s commitment to India’s rise as a major power in the 21st century to maintain the power balance in Asia. Subsequently, India’s relations with Iran came to be heavily scrutinised domestically and internationally as a litmus test for India’s strategic autonomy and, conversely, as a measure of progress in New Delhi’s strategic alignment with Washington.