The Indian Economic Trade Organisation (IETO) organised half-a-day conference in New Delhi on prospects of India-OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) trade. The purpose was to institutionalise, under track-II diplomacy, trade relations between Indian companies and their counterparts in the OIC countries. Economic route is the best way to build bilateral relations. Despite having the second largest population of Muslims in the world, India does not have a formal membership of OIC. Consolidation of economic relations is also good for OIC as they have formidable political challenges within the Association.

OIC is the second largest body after the United Nations. It comprises 57 member-countries from four Continents. It was founded in 1969 to promote Islamic values and the interests of member countries with Muslim population. India with second largest Muslim population was invited to their inaugural conference in Morocco. Then Minister for Agriculture Fakruddin Ali Ahmed landed in Rabat to attend the conference. As he was preparing for it, the invitation to India was revoked at the behest of Pakistan. Since then India has been kept out of OIC, and worse, made a target of criticism and censure on Kashmir on the continuous instigation of Pakistan. Only in 2019, an exception was made when the former Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj was invited to address the OIC conference in UAE.
There has been a dilution of OIC’s critical approach to India on Kashmir since 2014, after New Delhi under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi, built and deepened contacts with powerful countries belonging to OIC namely Saudi Arabia and UAE. New Delhi entered into a coalition of four countries, called I2U2 – India, Israel, United States and United Arab Emirates. New Delhi also befriended other countries in the Middle-East as Prime Minister made personal visits to them. In the IETO conference in Delhi, compendious arguments were made for India’s membership of OIC. It is not in order to allow Pakistan’s animosity against India to influence India’s relations with OIC. As a matter of fact, there are bigger and more intractable conflicts between many member countries of OIC. So, why should India be singled out? Also, if OIC’s core strategy is to promote the welfare of Muslims across the world, how can they ignore a huge segment of Muslims in India! The Preamble to the OIC charter says, “To enhance and strengthen the bond of unity and solidarity among the Muslims peoples…. to assist Muslims minorities and communities”.
The diplomats from member-countries of OIC – Sudan, Niger and Chad – made a strong plea for India to develop trade relations with their countries. Chad, currently, holds the powerful position of Secretary General of OIC. The Ambassador designate of Sudan to India invited a delegation of companies under the IETO banner to visit his country. All three of them mentioned their historic links with India and how Indian companies are already playing a prominent role in their economy. They would invite more Indian companies to operate in their countries. They were quite comfortable with Indian foreign policy of non-aggression, non-interference and no domination of weaker countries. They were also impressed with India’s political and business cultures based on diversity and pluralism.
In my intervention, I made a comparison of growth and operation of United Nations, OIC and the European Union (EU). OIC is a regional organisation unlike the United Nations which is a world body comprising all independent and sovereign member countries. Interestingly, OIC functions as the United Nations. International political observers contend that OIC passes resolutions on almost every development in the OIC countries but fails to implement most of them. It is like the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) which passes several resolutions without the will or capacity to implement them. Also, United Nations is controlled by P5 countries which have the controversial veto power. Actually, a single country out of P5 can upend any UN action by using the veto. Likewise, OIC is controlled by a few big powers.
I suggested that OIC should conduct itself as the EU which is by far the best example of regional integration. There are several regional bodies across the globe, none of which has achieved the degree of cohesion among the constituent countries like the EU has. There is a single currency and a single-visa (Schengen Visa) in operation in EU. It should be noted that EU took the trade and economic route to reach where it is today. It began as a customs union, then it became a commercial union, which transformed into an economic union and in 1992, it became a political union. The nomenclature also changed accordingly. It started as European Economic Community, which became European Community then finally European Union. The trade and economic convergence and integration were the driving forces behind the establishment of the EU.
Perhaps OIC could draw lessons from India while studying the structures of EU. In fact, Union of India and the EU are similar in structures and functions although they had different trajectories for their construction. Union of India began as one unit devolving powers to its constituent states under a federal structure. The EU consisted of independent and sovereign countries which surrendered parts of their sovereignty to create a supra-national organisation that is EU. The nature of EU consists of convergence as well as integration while giving adequate space to the member countries through what is called subsidiarity principle. This principle means that the decisions that can be taken at individual member level need not be sent to the supra-national bodies.
Political integration follows the economic convergences. It is not the other way round. When I raised this strategy as a maxim for coalition-building leading to integration, the diplomat from Niger strongly endorsed it. She said, “Every individual, community and country is interested in their economic well-being and material security. It is easier to bring them together on questions of trade and economy. If you raise political issues first, the negotiation becomes complex and often times insurmountable”. She agreed that economic diplomacy is better and more effective than concatenate political negotiations.
The conference was a welcome step by IETO which would supplement New Delhi’s efforts in building and consolidating relations with OIC countries. A lot of Indians work in OIC countries and about 90-billion USD comes to India as remittances. The OIC countries require scientific know-how and skilled manpower which India can provide whereas India should receive investment from the resource-rich OIC countries. Therefore, any effort to build economic and trade relations will augur well for both OIC and India.

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