Nervousness about Pakistan's nuclear programme and regional Islamicmilitancy have helped forge a powerful strategic relationship between Israeland India, writes Rahul Bedi.
Israel, probably the best informed about global Islamic insurgent groups, agreed formally with India early last week to jointly combat cross-border terrorism and the states that sponsor such activity.
Israeli Prime Minister Mr Arial Sharon's visit to India, the first by an Israeli prime minister since the two countries formally established diplomatic relations 11 years ago, also cemented the understanding that, as "democracies" and "victims of terror", Delhi, Tel Aviv and Washington would collectively fight this menace.
The details of this arrangement to "aid and assist" each other, principally underpinned by intelligence sharing, would be worked out later, officials said. But Israel's Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Yosef "Tommy" Lapid, was more categorical when he declared that the two countries could help one another as both were threatened by "fanatic" Muslims.
"We can train and teach \ and supply materials we have developed [to India\] in fighting terrorism" Mr Lapid stated.
India is fighting a Pakistan-backed Muslim rebellion in the northern, disputed Kashmir state for independence for 14 years, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives, while Palestinian insurgents have been waging war against Israel for a homeland for decades in a burgeoning conflict that threatens regional and global security.
Israel - with its extensive knowledge of Islamic terror organisations, their funding, training and overall modus operandi - remains the formidable partner of this tripartite coalition against terror that was first admitted publicly by India's national security adviser Mr Brajesh Mishra in Washington earlier this year.
Security sources said Israel was Washington's principal source of intelligence before the US-led coalition began its military campaign against the Taliban two years ago following the catastrophic events of September 11th. This expertise stems from Israel's little-publicised but single-minded obsession with Pakistan and its nuclear weapons capability, which Tel Aviv fears might be "leaked" by rogue elements to Islamic states inimical to Jewish interests.
Pakistan's atomic weapons, detonated five years ago in response to rival India's underground tests, are often referred to as the "Islamic Bomb", an association that has chilling echoes in Israel and, more recently, the US. Libya's ruler, Col Muammar Gadafy, is believed to have initially financed Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, which also received extensive help from China and North Korea.
Itself a "closet" nuclear weapon state, Israel is particularly concerned about possible Pakistan nuclear co-operation with Iran, which currently faces international inquisition over its reportedly covert weapons of mass destruction development programme.
Recent reports about such a symbiosis were denied by Islamabad. However, the rise to political prominence of fundamentalist groups in Pakistan's federal and provincial administrations after last year's elections, principally on an anti-US (and, by extension, anti-Israel) campaign, have alarm bells ringing in Tel Aviv.
Israel has also become the second-largest weapon supplier to India's Hindu nationalist-led coalition government by emphasising the threat posed by the country's large indigenous Muslim population, second only to Indonesia's, and fear of a nuclear Pakistan that frequently threatens to use its weapons of mass destruction whenever tensions with Delhi escalate.
But security sources said that, while Israel and the US - although to a lesser degree given the "close co-operation" between Islamabad and Washington in hunting down al-Qaeda cadres - can provide Delhi with " actionable" intelligence on Islamabad's nuclear weapons programme and Pakistan-backed Kashmiri terrorist groups, India can reciprocate with its insights on Iran, with whom it has growing diplomatic and political links and, more recently, fledgling military ties.
Before invading Iraq, the US is believed to have tacitly used India to seek assurances from Tehran that it would not impede Washington's plans to invade Baghdad, effect a regime change, possibly even redraw some of the boundaries in west Asia and usher in some form of democracy.
While there has been no official comment on Mr Mishra's hurried trip to Tehran en route to the US just before Iraq's invasion began, speculation in security circles is that he was the conduit for the "important" message a few weeks after Iranian President Mr Syed Mohammed Khatami was the chief guest at Delhi's impressive January 26th Republic Day military parade.
A few weeks earlier, the Indian navy chief of staff, Admiral Madhavendra Singh, paid an extended visit to Tehran during which the two sides agreed to hold joint manoeuvres in the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf. The Indian navy also offered assistance in maintaining Iran's four Russian "Kilo-class" boats and in training Iranian naval personnel. The two navies last conducted joint manoeuvres in the Persian Gulf in June 1998, a month after Delhi's underground nuclear tests, which Iran did not condemn.
The New Delhi Declaration signed by Mr Khatami and Mr Vajpayee pledged to underpin their "growing strategic convergence" with a "strong economic relationship". In a move that Indian security officials said could alter the geopolitics of the region, Delhi and Tehran also agreed to accelerate transport projects linking the Indian subcontinent with the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, central Asia and Europe.
To Israel and the US, information from India gained through close co-operation could be of immense relevance.