India pushing Iran to block Zangazur corridor? Armenian media on New Delhi's behind-the-scenes game

This month Caliber.Az reported on a serious rift in the Azerbaijan-India relations caused by New Delhi's provocative actions against Baku. Lately, the negative attitude towards Baku has clearly prevailed in India's foreign policy, which is manifested both in support for Armenia as opposed to Azerbaijan, and in the hidden anti-Azerbaijani activities within the Non-Aligned Movement.

Today, new nuances in India's anti-Azerbaijani policy have become known, as reported by Armenian media close to the Karabakh clan. According to their reports, India has not only blocked Azerbaijan's participation in the upcoming BRICS summit as a guest. New Delhi sharply intensified the Armenian direction in its foreign policy after the 44-day war. In late October 2021, Indian Foreign Minister Subramaniam Jaishankar visited Yerevan where he made a number of statements, the essence of which was the idea of granting Yerevan the status of a regional partner of India.

In closed-door talks in Yerevan, according to informed sources, the Indian minister urged Armenian authorities to firmly oppose the attempts of Azerbaijan and Türkiye to launch the Zangazur corridor, promising that India on its part will do everything in the international arena "to guarantee Yerevan's sovereignty over Zangazur".

In addition, the Hindus are actively lobbying for a global transport and communications corridor along the India-Iran-Armenia-Georgia-Black Sea line to counterbalance a similar Beijing project of China-Pakistan-Iran-Azerbaijan-Black Sea. New Delhi has practically bought the Chabahar seaport from Iran and is building a global logistics hub around it, with an investment programme worth tens of billions of dollars, precisely to reduce the profitability of the Chinese logistics route, with a hub in Pakistan's Gwadar.

One of India's demands to Iran in exchange for the contribution of huge funds to the economy of Iran was, according to Armenian media, exactly "the condition to promote the territorial integrity of Armenia for the use of Zangazur bypassing the Turkish-Azerbaijani routes from the Persian Gulf to Europe".

The fact that Indian signals and proposals were not left unanswered is evidenced by the data on the intensification of visits of Armenian delegations to the capital of India. In particular, in mid-June this year Armenian Foreign Minister Mirzoyan paid a working visit there and, exactly one month later, a delegation of the Armenian Defence Ministry left for New Delhi. According to India Narrative, the Armenian Defence Ministry's delegation arrived in New Delhi in July with a long list of military goods to study the offers of the Indian military-industrial complex. While the media was unable to obtain a complete list of weapons Armenia requested, interest in a fleet of Indian-made combat drones did emerge. The Indian newspaper columnists said that after the purchase of four SWATHI weapon-locating radars from India for $40 million in 2020, "Yerevan's new requests have grown exponentially".