India’s Defence Cooperation with the GCC: Role for the Indian Navy

Abstract

The success of India’s ‘Look West’ Policy for promoting ties with the Middle East countries has helped to build upon historical trade and cultural ties and paved the way to progress defence and security cooperation. This could be led by the Indian Navy which has emerged as the regional net security provider and which also played an instrumental role in promoting India’s relations with the Southeast Asian countries under India’s ‘Look East’ Policy of the 1990s. Close maritime security cooperation between the Arab Gulf navies and the Indian Navy could be mutually beneficial and help to improve overall regional maritime security. This article looks at how this could be achieved, overcoming potential challenges along the way.

Keywords:

• India
• GCC
• maritime security cooperation
• Indian Navy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shishir Upadhyaya

Shishir Upadhyaya is a former Indian naval Commander and Associate Professor at the American University in the Emirates, Dubai. He holds a PhD from the University of Wollongong, Australia, and is a Fellow of the Indo-Pacific Security Symposium under the US Department. of Defense.