India's De-Hyphenated West Asia Policy
India's Ministry of External Affairs officially characterises India's West Asia policy as "de-hyphenated" — meaning India's relations with Israel, Arab states, Iran, and the Palestinian Authority are managed as separate bilateral relationships, not conditioned on each other. India imports roughly 50-60% of its oil from Gulf Arab states (Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE, Kuwait), has a diaspora of approximately 9 million people in the Gulf generating significant remittance flows, maintains a strategic oil relationship with Iran, and runs a rapidly growing defence partnership with Israel. These interests pull in different directions, but India's position is that it can serve all of them simultaneously by refusing to allow one relationship to determine the terms of another.
- Indian diaspora in Gulf: approximately 9 million; remittances from the region approximately $40 billion annually.
- India's oil from Gulf states: approximately 50-60% of total crude imports.
- India-Israel defence trade: approximately $2-2.5 billion annually; Israel is a top-3 defence supplier.
- "De-hyphenation" policy: explicitly articulated by the Modi government from 2014 onwards; allows simultaneous engagement with Israel (defence, technology) and Arab states (oil, diaspora) without linking the two.
- India's recognition of Palestinian statehood (1988) has never been revoked; the Palestinian Authority maintains an embassy in New Delhi.
● Tracked since February 24, 2026 · last seen March 25, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes