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India sends diplomat for talks to Damascus
India has engaged with Syria's new provisional government, focusing on health cooperation and enhancing bilateral relations during a recent diplomatic visit.
India has made a formal outreach to Syria’s provisional government led by former Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, with a middle-ranking diplomat visiting Damascus for meetings with Syrian ministers.
This was the first official visit to Damascus from the Indian side since al-Sharaa, whose group was once affiliated to al-Qaeda, assumed power after ousting the regime of Bashar al-Assad following a lightning offensive last December.
There was no official word from the Indian side on the visit by Suresh Kumar, director of the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) division of the external affairs ministry. Kumar’s meetings with Syria’s foreign and education ministers in Damascus on Monday were reported by state-run SANA news agency.
“A beginning had to be made and India had to register its presence. You have to open the door at some point,” a person familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.
Syria’s foreign minister Asaad Al-Shaibani and the Indian delegation led by Kumar discussed “issues of mutual concern and ways of enhancing relations between the two countries in the interests of both peoples”, SANA reported.
The meeting between Kumar and Syrian health minister Musab Al-Ali focused on enhancing health cooperation, particularly in the fields of pharmaceutical industries and medical training, according to another report by SANA.
The two sides also discussed a mechanism for implementing a scholarship for Syrian students, and allocating a specialised engineering cooperation programme for government employees.
Al-Ali stressed Syria’s aspiration to establish a strong partnership with India in pharmaceutical industries and health technologies in order to support the national health sector and provide medicines.
Kumar said India will continue funding specialised training courses for Syrian personnel, coordinate the training of Syrian doctors in Indian centres, and enhance cooperation in nursing, pharmaceutical industries and pharmaceutical exports, the report said.
India has had strong political ties with Syria and both countries were key members of the Non-Aligned Movement. India’s traditional support for Arab causes such as the issue of Palestine was appreciated by Syria. India also backed Syria’s right to the Golan Heights, currently occupied by Israel, and its full return to the country.
Under the Assad family, the Syrian government usually backed India at multilateral forums, including on the issue of Kashmir.
In response to a request from Damascus for emergency humanitarian aid in 2021, the Indian government gifted 2,000 tonnes of rice to Syria. During the Covid-19 pandemic, India sent a 10 tonnes of medicines to Syria. This was the largest medical assistance from any country to Syria during the pandemic.
India has been monitoring the situation in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024. At the time, India evacuated 77 Indian nationals from Syria.
“We hope that the new constitution, due to be drafted, takes into account the interests of all the sections of the Syrian society,” the external affairs ministry said in a statement around the time of the change of government.
In January, al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda commander who went by the name Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, became president of the provisional government.
People familiar with the matter said the outreach to Damascus was influenced by Syria’s strategic location in West Asia – the country shares borders with five key regional actors, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon – and the long-standing ties between the two sides.
The outreach also follows the US decision to end sanctions on Syria after a meeting between al-Sharaa and President Donald Trump in May.
