India's relations with Iran and Israel are strategic and more complex in contemporary world politics. This triangular balancing of relations has witnessed a changing nature of the states. This article examines how New Delhi has managed the triangular relationship in the post-Cold War period, scrutinising the strategic, economic, and geopolitical elements that underpin India's foreign policy vis-à-vis the two nations locked in a bitter state of mutual hostility. Despite their antipathy, India has developed strong relations separately with both countries, due to rational but complementary national priorities. Iran provides essential energy, access through the Chabahar port to Central Asia and Afghanistan, and civilizational links. Israel contributes advanced defence technology, agricultural productivity boosters, and intelligence cooperation in line with India's security interests. The post-Cold War period and developments in global politics since then, from the Abraham Accords and increasing military tensions between Iran and Israel to more severe U.S. sanctions on Iran, as well as exposures of violations by key parties through the October 2023 Gaza conflict, have made this diplomatic challenge much harder. In exploring patterns of bilateral trade, defence cooperation architecture, connectivity initiatives, and multilateral engagement, this article argues that India's approach is rooted in realist regimes of constructing interest-driven regionalism rather than ideological alignments. This article uses compartmentalisation theory and strategic autonomy dichotomies to account for how India manages contradictions between relations. However, growing polarisation in West Asian geopolitics, as well as India's deepening strategic partnership with America and evolving energy needs, leave it increasingly uncertain that such a delicate balance can be sustained in the long term, potentially pushing New Delhi into some very hard choices that its predecessors were able to finesse.
Monjur Alam Mollick (Sun,) studied this question.