What Jordan King Abdullah’s Visit Means To India’s Middle East Engagements

King Abdullah II of Jordan, the successor to and son of the famous late King Hussain of Jordan is about to visit India. He should ordinarily need no introduction. However, in India we sometimes have a tendency to gloss over some important world leaders if we are unaware of their personalities or the weight their nations could actually carry. The reigning King of Jordan is one of those about whom enough has not been written or spoken about in India.

Before something on the King, it is important to assess the value of his visit which comes on the back of a round robin of success in the foreign policy domain for India. While Nepal and Maldives along with the messy situation on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) are all reminders of the negatives of our neighbourhood, it is the next periphery where India has scored some marked successes in the recent past. It started with the visit of the ASEAN leaders on Republic Day 2018 and followed with the high-profile visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in early February 2018.

The rapidity of foreign engagements continued immediately thereafter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting Palestine with a halt at Amman, proceeding to the UAE and Oman, before we witnessed the arrival of Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani later in February this year (2018) in an unprecedented visit coming on the heels of Israel’s leader. The detail apart, this phase has demonstrated an Indian ability of straddling the divide in the Middle East. The visit of King Abdullah II assumes much greater importance when seen in the context of this unprecedented run of engagements with the major players of the Middle East.

What is the importance of the King of Jordan in this context? A bit on his personal record as an intellectual and leader of a moderate Islamic nation which has suffered the impact of conflict all around it, may establish why his visit is important. He was educated in Jordan, UK and the US before going on to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst from where he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the British Army and served a year in Britain and West Germany as a troop commander in the 13th/18th Royal Hussars of the British Army. He continued to add to his military experience and qualifications before he ascended the throne of Jordan in 1999.

Through the march of the Arab Spring eight years ago, he progressively transformed his rule of Jordan to a more effective constitutional monarchy. With the other major threat looming over the Middle East, that of Radical Islam and in the midst of the growing sectarian discord between Iran and Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah held one of the best attended conclaves to address the issue of the hijacking of the moderate Islamic street by the Islamic radical elements.

The culmination of this conclave of Islamic clergy and scholars across the sectarian divide in 2004 was the Amman Message of which enough has not been written nor spoken. Among many of the sub messages gloved in the folds of this amazing message was the acceptance by the Islamic clergy of the need to do away with the self-assumed practice of ‘takfiri’ or the power to declare a follower of Islam an apostate if he did not follow the path interpreted by certain segments who were muscling their way into the power centres of Islamic ideology. It also accepted the validity of diverse legal schools of traditional Islamic theology putting at rest the sectarian divide.

Given the situation in the Middle East, there have been attempts over the last few years at muscling particular ideologies through political/military control. The ISIS phenomenon is not entirely behind us but the levels of violence in Syria appear abating. There are equations crystallising even as Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) is attempting to give his nation a revamped ideology and status. The Saudi-Israel-US triangle set against the Iran-Syria-Russia grouping may find fresh manifestation of differences into conflict situations. With India’s deep interests and active stakes in peace in the Middle East can it play a larger role to bring the various players closer to an understanding?

The demonstrated diplomacy in the recent weeks may give just an iota of hope against the traditional reticence that India has otherwise displayed in the past. It is with this hope that one looks at the visit of King Abdullah II. Can the goodwill and balance of the Amman Message be understood better and revived to send a message of reconciliation between various interest groups. Can India’s unique inclusive culture be used to add weight to the message? India is at a unique juncture of history and one of the only nations which comfortably straddles the political and strategic divide in the Middle East. Partnering the King as a virtual interlocutor it could perhaps be best guided towards that role.

So, while there may be despair over the negatives of our neighbourhood, it is an opportunity emerging to showcase India’s statesmanship in a region where many of our core interests lie. One time when the King was in India some years ago he spent time with the Skinner’s Horse, the affiliated Indian Army tank unit linked with his British Army unit, Royal Hussars. Can these links, the deep respect his father, late King Hussain had for India and the equation the current King seems to have developed with India’s Prime Minister be the harbinger for better things to come? The next few days should give us some inkling.