Iran s Look East Strategy: Sino-Iran Rapprochement and the Indian Perspective

In the wake of the US withdrawal of the Iran nuclear deal, or JCPOA, and the re-imposition of sanctions, Iranian policymakers came down gradually in favor of cooperation with the East, chief among them China, culminating in the signing of a 25-year Iran-China agreement and the adoption of Iran s Look East Strategy in 2021. Considering the changing flux in Iran s diplomacy toward regional cooperation and ever-increasing Sino-Iranian rapprochement, the main question of this contribution is about the effect of Sino-Iranian rapprochement on India, one of Iran s biggest Asian trading partners. The main hypothesis states that Sino-Iranian rapprochement has led India to expand the scope of its connectivity projects through Iran, throwing a spoke in the wheel of China s Belt and Road Initiative in South and Central Asia. Constructivist Institutionalism (CI), developed by Hay, was adopted as the theoretical framework. The methodology used for this research is based on qualitative methodology and discourse analysis to focus on Iran-India relations in the context of Iran s Look East strategy. Our findings indicate that Indian policymakers are following the Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam principle in their engagement with Iran, seeking to increase Iran-India ties in the face of Chinese competition with long-term strategic and security deals. As part of India s civilizational role in Central Asia and as a response to growing Chinese footprints in the region, India has undertaken certain concrete measures, such as the institutionalization of the India-Central Asia summit on a multi-lateral framework and the inclusion of Iran s Chabahar port in the International North-South Corridor. The research findings reveal that the corporation remains the weak link in the chain of the state-temple-corporate complex of the Hindu nationalist BJP in relation to Iran. India is also set to lock in cooperation with Iran through long-term strategic deals, institutionalizing security cooperation, and strengthening private sector participation in the Chabahar project.