Indian analysts see potential for synergy

Accord creates new opportunities in tourism, medicine, and environment

The historic peace accord signed in Washington between the UAE and Israel on the one hand, and between Bahrain and Israel on the other, has generated wide positive response in India.

Writing in the West Asia and North Africa Digest, India’s leading Arabist and former ambassador to several countries, Mahesh Sachdev, predicted that it would “create synergy between the two most advanced economies of the region with a high degree of complementarity”.

Sachdev described the accords as essentially “peacefor-peace deals” and not “land-for-peace” deals.

Interviewing regional experts, Pratigyan Das wrote in The Times of India that “normalisation paves the way not only for greater cooperation on state matters, but also in terms of business opportunities, tourism, medicine, environmental challenges, and other similar matters”.

Writing in The Hindu, commentator Stanly Johny noted that the pace of rapprochement in the Middle East was picking up following the UAE’s lead in establishing diplomatic relations with Israel. “It took more than three decades for the first Arab country, Egypt, to recognise Israel. Jordan, the second Arab country that established peace with Israel, took 15 more years to do so. There was a gap of 26 years between Jordan’s peace treaty and that of the UAE with Israel.

And then it took less than 30 days for the fourth agreement between Bahrain and Israel,” he noted.

The Press Trust of India reported that “the agreement between the UAE and Israel represented a significant breakthrough in diplomatic relations between the two nations”.