Iran, Israel relationship or absence of it source of concern: EAM Jaishankar

Manama, Dec 8 (PTI) The relationship or absence of it between Israel and Iran has been a source of concern and some of India's diplomatic efforts are focused on that aspect, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Sunday.

In an address at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, Jaishankar, without directly referring to attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea by Houthi militants, said India has an interest in trying to mitigate the security situation.

Jaishankar, on a two-day visit to Bahrain from Saturday, touched upon various issues, including how to prevent conflicts from spreading further, the importance of key connectivity projects and the need to improve the security situation in the region.

"In recent times, for all of us, the relationship or absence of it between Israel and Iran has been particularly a source of concern, so some of our diplomatic efforts has focused on that particular aspect," he said.

The external affairs minister, however, did not elaborate on India's efforts.

There have been mounting global concerns over escalating tensions between Iran and Israel in the last few months.

In October, Iran fired around 200 missiles into Israel in response to Israel's killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders of the militant outfit. Israel subsequently retaliated against the Iranian strikes.

The external affairs minister, talking about the importance of West Asia for New Delhi, also highlighted India's sustained economic growth.

"India is today almost a USD 4 trillion economy, (and) we expect to comfortably double that this decade. Our trade is today around USD 800 billion, that too should at least double this decade," he said.

"So I again cannot overstate the stakes that we have because this region is the immediate for us the world beyond our borders that immediately awaits us," he said.

In his remarks, Jaishankar also referred to the situation in the Red Sea and said the security domain is a key area for strategic regional cooperation.

"And we have had very significant security challenges in this area with a very deep and disastrous impact for trade in Asia," he said.

"So when we look at the diversion of maritime routes and the insurance costs, and the shipping costs and the container costs and the delay that it has imposed, obviously, you know, India, but not just India, we have an interest in trying to mitigate that situation," he added.

In view of the volatile situation in the Red Sea, shipments were diverted to other routes that had increased the cost of transportation significantly.

The external affairs minister also briefly spoke about India's naval presence in the region.

"We have actually had a naval presence in this region in the Gulf of Aden, Somalia, Northern Arabian Sea. Over the year it's been roughly about 30 ships, the peak was about 12 ships at one point of time which were deployed there," he said.

"And in the last year, we have actually responded to 24 actual incidents, escorted 250 ships, rescued 120 crew members. So we are making our contributions, we working in tandem with Operation Prosperity Guardian. We have our own nationally named operation," he said.

'Operation Prosperity Guardian' is a US-led military mission that was launched late last year to jointly address security challenges in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Jaishankar said India intends to increase its bilateral exercise both in the Gulf with its partners as well as in the Mediterranean.

"So in the Gulf, I think the Gulf countries have been our fairly regular partners by now and in almost every case we have seen an uptick in our shared activities," he said.

"In the Mediterranean, particularly, apart from Israel, with Greece, with Egypt, we have had significant exercises this year," he added.

Jaishankar also elaborated on various connectivity projects, including the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral (IMTT) highway, the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and the ambitious India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC) initiative.

"In fact, one day, when these corridors are done, the IMEC will bring the Atlantic to India, the IMTT will actually take that connectivity from India to the Pacific," he said.

"So you can actually envisage a connectivity corridor from the Atlantic to the Pacific going through southern Europe, going through the Arabian peninsula, cutting through the southern part of the Asian continent." "So this truly has a game-changing possibility. But like everything game-changing, this needs obviously a lot of hard work, a lot of resources and many obstacles to overcome," he added. PTI