ArmInfo.The Indian leadership is well aware of the importance of its own mission in keeping Syunik together with Armenia and Iran and in getting the beaten path from south to north. An independent political analyst Saro Saroyan expressed this opinion to ArmInfo, commenting on the forthcoming visit of the Indian Foreign Minister to Armenia.
Today, on October 12, Minister of External Affairs of India Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will pay an official visit to Armenia for the first time. On October 13, he will meet with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and Speaker of the Parliament Alen Simonyan. Earlier, the Indian Foreign Ministry said that the visit will provide an opportunity to understand what progress has been achieved in bilateral relations, and will also allow exchanging views on the situation in the region.
"India today is one of the advanced states in the world, by the way, has applied for permanent membership in the UN Security Council. The latter speaks of New Delhi's geopolitical ambitions to take on a new international role and functions, as well as to increase and consolidate its own participation and influence in certain regions of the world," he stressed. From this point of view, the South Caucasus, according to the analyst, is a very important corridor for India, which has such rivals as China and Pakistan.
In this light, Saroyan stressed that Pakistan is a direct ally of Turkey and Azerbaijan, carrying out joint projects with Turkey in the countries of Central Asia. In his opinion, taking into account the recent involvement of Pakistan in the Caucasian affairs at the invitation of Azerbaijan, what is happening in the South Caucasusdoes not at all correspond to the interests of India. In this context, the analyst, in particular, highlighted the latest events and statements around the so-called "Zangezur Corridor".
According to him, in addition to Iran, India also stands behind the North-South communication route, and without Armenia, the implementation of this project is simply impossible. In this light, the analyst noted the confrontation between the projects of the North-South corridor and the Turkish project of the East-West corridor. Taking into account the inconsistency of these projects, Turkey, according to Saroyan's forecasts, is doing and will do everything in order to prevent the implementation of the North-South project. "Against this background, India is already trying to strengthen its own presence and functions in the South Caucasus. And it is the involvement of the North-South corridor that will allow India to very quickly strengthen its own involvement in regional affairs and its presence in the same Armenia. The latter will contribute to the strengthening of mutually beneficial trade and economic ties between our countries, "the analyst summed up.