NEW DELHI: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s arrival in New Delhi underscores the Indian government’s ability to nurture warm ties with traditional friends, while tilting to accommodate adversaries. It demonstrates an ability to wilfully forget the past, while focusing on its own future interests.

About 10 days back, India welcomed Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath. The same red carpet will now be rolled out for Sharon, the first Israeli premier to visit India.

Analysts see it as a pragmatic shift in India’s foreign policy. The government has balanced delicately on this tightrope before. It once vocally supported the pro-democracy movement in Mynamar (Burma). That voice is softer now, as India has steadily strengthened ties with the military junta. It once stridently expressed solidarity for the cause of a free Tibet. Today, it cannot ignore the importance of engaging China.

During Shaath’s visit, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement, India has consistently supported the Palestinian cause. This long-standing position has roots in India’s traditional ties with the Arab world. India’s commitment to contribute to peace and stability in the Middle East is a cardinal element of its foreign policy.

Is that foreign policy confused, or is the government merely jockeying for space in its quest for a multi-polar world?

In June, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee became the first Indian premier to visit China in more than a decade, in an attempt to calm a turbulent past of the world’s two most populous nations.

India has traditionally supported the cause of a free Tibet. In 1959, about 150,000 Tibetans followed their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, into India.

Tibet’s government-in-exile is comfortably ensconced in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

Many of the 100,000 Tibetans in India were disappointed, some even felt betrayed, when Vajpayee and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao signed a joint declaration, in which India recognized Tibet as part of China’s territory and ruled out anti-Chinese activity by Tibetans in India.

The declaration signed, India’s Minister for External Affairs Yashwant Sinha said it did not change his country’s policy towards either Tibet or the Dalai Lama.

The Tibetan Youth Congress — a 20,000-strong organization that campaigns worldwide for a free Tibet — said Vajpayee’s signing of the declaration amounted to obliterating Tibet. Observers said China’s growing importance as a global power made it imperative for India to re-think its policy towards its neighbour.

India has traditionally supported the restoration of democracy in Myanmar. After the military takeover in 1989, many anti-junta activists sought refuge here.

By the early 1990s, it became evident that New Delhi and Yangon (Rangoon) would have to start a dialogue to stem drug trafficking and gun-running across the border with India’s northeast states.

For India, Myanmar was an important land bridge to Southeast Asia. It also had to consider China’s growing trade and military assistance to Myanmar.

In January, India hosted Myanmar’s Foreign Minister U. Win Aung, with an eye on development and infrastructure projects in that country.

The government’s invitation to Israel’s Sharon has sparked protests by left-wing parties and Muslim groups.

Harkishen Singh Surjeet, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), wrote to Vajpayee asking him to clarify the government’s stand on the Palestinian’s plight instead of trying to run with the hare and hunt with the hound.

“You have failed to spell out your policy towards Palestine, currently under the brutal occupation of Israel,” the letter said.

Last week at a conference in New Delhi attended by diplomats from countries like Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Syria and Yemen, Palestinian Ambassador Osma Musa Ali said Sharon’s visit would not impact the Palestinian Authority’s relations with India.

India openly pleaded the Palestinian issue and voted in favour of at least 15 UN resolutions, which envisaged the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Ali also said, “If any country thinks it can reach America by not condemning Israeli occupation, they are foolish and making a big mistake.”

Ajay Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management, told the Economic Times newspaper India’s Israel policy has been held hostage to its engagement with Arab countries and to the Palestinian issue.

This has not been a fruitful position since the Arab world has on most critical issues and occasions tended to vote as a bloc in Pakistan’s favour, Sahni said.

The stage for Sharon’s visit was set four-months ago in Washington when India’s National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra addressed the annual dinner of the American Jewish Committee.

India, the United States and Israel have some fundamental similarities. “We are all democracies, sharing a common vision of pluralism, tolerance and equal opportunity. Stronger India-US relations and India-Israel relations have a natural logic,” Mishra said.

A resolution passed on Saturday during a public meeting organized by the Indo-Arab Islamic Association in New Delhi stated: “The government forgets that both the US and Israel have generated terrorism by their action in the Arab world, and particularly in Palestine, while India is a victim of terrorism. There can be no meeting point between India, a secular democracy, and Israel, a racist theocracy.”

India and Israel established diplomatic relations in 1992. The ties that bind the two countries today include co-operation in defence, counter-terrorism, agriculture and commerce. Bilateral trade — primarily in diamonds, machinery, chemicals, rubber and plastic grew from $200 million in 1992 to $1.27 billion in 2002.

After Russia, Israel is the second largest supplier of defence equipment to India, which includes surface-to-air missiles, sophisticated censors and artillery.

India is currently negotiating the acquisition of three Phalcons, an early warning radar system from Israel, to be mounted on the Russian-built Ilyushin II-76 aircraft. The Phalcon can detect cruise missiles and low-flying aircraft faster than ground-based radar.

India and Israel are expected to sign agreements related to environment, drug trafficking, visa-free travel for diplomats and education during Sharon’s visit. He will, however, be accompanied by heads of government and privately-owned defence industries, and his visit is expected to boost defence and counter-terrorism ties.

Protests in several Indian cities against Sharon’s arrival began last week, with angry demonstrators waving banners calling him a murderer and war criminal. He will start his visit by paying homage at Rajghat, the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of non-violence.—dpa