After six weeks of fighting, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a peace deal along with Russia on November 10. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh region had taken a complex turn with involvement of various powers from both sides.

During the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh India’s Ministry of External Affairs had issued a statement which called for restraint from both the sides and resolving the conflict through peaceful diplomatic negotiations.

Turkey and Pakistan siding with Azerbaijan was considered as a ground for India to support Armenia. Turkey and Azerbaijan have sided with Pakistan over the Jammu Kashmir issue while Armenia has supported India.

India’s relations with Armenia remain underdeveloped. The recent conflict could provide a reason for India to cultivate closer ties with Armenia. But even beyond the conflict India must make efforts to develop its relations with Armenia.

India’s interests in the region

India has a stake in peaceful resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict since it has an impact on India’s interests in the region. The south Caucasus region is important for India as the International North-South Transit Corridor (INSTC) passes through this region. The INSTC would connect India to West Asia, Central Asia and Eurasia. India’s relations with this region and neighbouring regions are still in a developmental phase. Connectivity remains the crucial and most basic factor for India in this region. India has been involved in development of various connectivity projects through Central Asia and Caucasus.

To give further boost to connectivity the INSTC is expected to operate in coordination with the Chabahar Port and the Ashgabat Agreement. India’s intention in developing the multiple connectivity links is to circumvent Pakistan to reach Central Asia and Eurasia.

Involvement of different regional powers supporting either side would result in instability in the south Caucasus as well as its neighbourhood. Overall the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict directly affects India since it could stall the completion of connectivity projects and thereby India’s outreach to the region.

Cultural connections between India and Armenia

Cultural connections between countries have been important in conducting diplomacy. India has also time and again invoked shared cultural ties in reaching out to different countries especially in the neighbourhood and extended neighbourhood.

India always cites centuries old cultural ties with Iran, Afghanistan, the Central Asian countries and the Middle Eastern countries. All these ties fall within the realm of Islam as a religion and culture.

But it is also important to consider the links between India and Armenia through Hinduism. India’s contact with Armenia is said to be 2000-year old. Two Hindu princes are said to have ruled over a portion of Armenia and so Hindu religion was practiced there. On the other hand, the Armenians had contact with India for business and trade. Over the past few centuries Armenians had settled in India. While today their number is negligible there are Armenian churches in Kolkata and Chennai.

Just as India-Armenia relations remain underdeveloped, India’s Hindu connection with Armenia also remains a relatively unknown area as the link between the two countries. India should explore this cultural side in order to increase proximity with Armenia.

Israel and Taiwan as the template

Israel and Taiwan provide a template, in two different contexts, for India to develop stronger relations with Armenia. 

India’s relations with Armenia go parallel to Israel in the sense that India and Israel had several centuries old connections through the Jewish people living in India. The Jews came to India after fleeing persecution at the hands of Seleucids in Palestine more than 2000 years ago. Over the centuries the Jews had integrated into the Indian society and Indians connected with the Jews long before Israel came into existence as a country in 1948.

With respect to Armenia the earliest contact of Armenians with India is believed to be established in 780 CE with the visit of an Armenian merchant to Malabar in Kerala. Similar to the Jews, many Armenians had to flee their country after the Ottoman and Safavid conquests in the 15^th century. Some of those who fled arrived in India settling in Delhi, Agra and later in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The Armenians in India were not large in numbers but they have been a prosperous trading community.

With the formation of Israel, most of the Jews left India in 1948. Similarly following India’s independence in 1947, the majority of the Armenians too moved to Armenia and other countries.

India established diplomatic relations with both Israel and Armenia in 1992. Since then India’s bilateral relations with Israel have only grown in the past almost three decades, especially in the area of defence. The last five years have seen India-Israel relations getting stronger with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel in 2017 and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to India in 2018. India is Israel’s largest arms buyer while Israel is India’s third largest arms supplier. The growth in India-Israel relations could be replicated in case of India-Armenia relations.

Taiwan provides yet another template that could be matched with Armenia. The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict has found a resonance with Indians which is similar to China’s conflict with Taiwan. Since China is also involved in conflict with India, Indians have been expressing their solidarity with Taiwan, an opponent of China.

Recently, Taiwan’s national day saw a very warm and enthusiastic exchange of greetings between Indian and Taiwanese people. Further Taiwan’s Prime Minister Tsai Ing-wen thanked India for celebrating Taiwan’s national day. The Indian government on its part has been taking steps indicating its willingness to strengthen relations with Taiwan. The steps include consideration of trade talks with Taiwan and India exempting Taiwan from Chinese Foreign Portfolio Investments that require prior approval of the Indian government.

Similarly the ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has seen Indian support pour out in favour of Armenia. While the support to Armenia and Taiwan is understandable in the context of opposing India’s adversaries, India can benefit significantly by having closer relations with Armenia.

The way ahead

India’s relations with Armenia have been receiving some quiet boosts in the past one year. In the 2019 United Nations General Assembly, Turkey raised the issue of Jammu and Kashmir criticizing India’s actions. In turn India responded by Modi holding bilateral meetings with the leaders of Armenia, Greece and Cyprus.

In another development, earlier this year India secured a $40 million defence deal with Armenia. As per the agreement Armenia is set to get India’s indigenously developed SWATHI weapon locating radars. Defence deal is an important step in India-Armenia relations on which both the countries could elevate their ties to a higher level.

Despite the underdeveloped nature of India-Armenia relations, more progress could be expected on the lines of the foreign policy conducted by Modi in the past six years. Modi’s foreign policy has been characteristic of laying stress upon the lesser focused engagements. Modi has the distinction to be the first Indian prime minister to visit countries like Australia, Fiji and Spain after a long gap of several decades since the last prime ministerial visits. Modi is also the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel. Since Armenia remains a lesser focused entity, it should form part of Modi’s foreign policy in the future going by these precedents.

Growing engagements with a country not only strengthens bilateral relations, it also provides a wider access to the region. India’s increasing engagements with Australia are important from bilateral as well as from regional point of view with regard to the Indo-Pacific. Similarly, India’s engagements with Armenia would allow India to increase its outreach to the Caucasus region.

Cultural connections combined with the emerging geopolitical factors make a strong case for India to increase its engagements with Armenia.

(Niranjan Marjani is a Political Analyst and Researcher based in Vadodara. Follow him on Twitter: @NiranjanMarjani)