I2U2 is a significant forum for India to raise its geo-strategic voice
India participated in a senior leader level meeting this week at a forum known as the I2U2. The name, with a clever resonance to new star exploration missions, stands for the first letters of the countries, which are coming together to form a promising formidable regional alliance. This forum is also being termed as a western QUAD. The I2U2 leader-level meeting held virtually saw Israel, India, the UAE and the US come together to reimagine the geopolitical economy of the region.
The seeds of the I2U2 summit were sown during the pandemic when President Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump tried to normalise the decades’ old troubled relationship between Israel and Arabs, under an agreement called the Abraham’s accord. The subsequent change of leadership in the US after 2020 meant that the Abraham’s accord did not find optimal mind space beyond a few think tanks in Washington. However, President Biden (rightly) calculated the need to continue with his predecessor’s foreign policies and chose to revive the Abraham accord, along with expanding the agreement, to bring India into the picture. This resulted in the first of its kind foreign ministers’ meeting last October between the US, the UAE, Israel and India.
The foreign ministers’ meeting between four countries marked a significant shift in foreign policy outlook for each of the countries involved, and reorientation of their engagements in the Middle East. First, the US acknowledged to an extent that it needs new partners in the region, such as India at the table, to meaningfully manage the Middle East. It also signified that the US was willing to give away some of its legacy claims as peace agent for the region. Secondly, it also highlighted the close cooperation between the UAE and Israel in technology and trade. This underscores the true spirit of Abraham’s accord, whose declaration reads “the best way to address challenges is through cooperation and dialogue”.
One of the most significant beneficiaries from the creation of this multilateral group in the region is India. It is significant to note that India did not establish full diplomatic relations with Israel until about two decades ago. The fear was India’s close ties with Israel and political sanctity to the country may upset decades’ old relationship with the Arab world. India is one of the major oil importing nations from the Arab world.
India shed its Cold War mindset of non-alignment with the US and larger West in the Indo Pacific, and aggressively came on board of QUAD, (a group of US, India, Australia and Japan) to establish greater cooperation for a secure transparent rules-based Indo-Pacific. After dragging its feet for nearly five years, since QUAD was first thought of, Australia and India were forced to come together with the two other countries as result of increased hostility from China. The covid pandemic and subsequent military faceoff with China in India’s north-western front further pushed India into the QUAD group.
Meanwhile, the US's exit from Afghanistan and the ongoing war in Ukraine, leading to higher prices for oil and food, forced many countries, including America, to rethink their strategic, bilateral, and multilateral engagements. All this means every western country and US are recalibrating their China engagements and looking at alternate partners, the best bet for them being India which is a democracy. The I2U2 is the right level of multilateral cooperation which chooses to engage in a meaningful manner without having the China factor. There are chances that these arrangements could be extended to some more countries in the Middle East and possibly Africa which could help expand India’s share of voice.
(The writer is a policy analyst. The views expressed are personal.)