Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s December 2025 visit to Jordan landed quietly, but the message behind it was anything but soft. In a region on edge, India’s outreach to Amman showed how New Delhi is spreading its bets, carefully and with intent.
The trip, held on December 15–16, came at a moment when Middle East politics feel tense, crowded, and unpredictable. Jordan, often overlooked, suddenly mattered a lot more.
Jordan’s strategic weight in a crowded Middle East
Jordan does not shout. It rarely grabs headlines. Yet it sits at the heart of the region, sharing borders with Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Geography alone gives Amman leverage.
For India, this matters. Jordan has long been seen as a stabilising force, especially during regional crises that tend to spill across borders. Its intelligence services are respected, its diplomacy is cautious, and its leadership has maintained working ties across bitter divides.
That balancing role fits neatly with India’s own approach.
India today speaks to Iran and Israel, to Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian leadership, without fully aligning with any single camp. Jordan, led by King Abdullah II, mirrors that instinct.
Quietly, Jordan also plays a role in managing Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, an issue that resonates strongly across the Muslim world and beyond.
That, too, gives it diplomatic currency.
Sometimes influence isn’t loud. It’s steady.
A relationship revisited after decades of neglect
Modi’s visit was the first by an Indian prime minister to Jordan since 1988, when Rajiv Gandhi travelled to Amman. That gap says a lot.
For years, India’s Middle East focus leaned heavily toward the Gulf states, energy suppliers, and large Indian diaspora hubs. Jordan sat on the sidelines. It was friendly, but rarely front and centre.
That began to change after 2014.
President Pranab Mukherjee’s 2015 visit to Amman marked an early signal. Modi’s brief stopover in 2018, during his Palestine trip, kept the door open. But December 2025 pushed it wider.
From the Jordanian side, high-level visits have been just as infrequent. King Abdullah’s trips to India in 2006 and 2018 were important, yet follow-through remained limited.
This visit tried to fix that.
It carried symbolism, yes. But it also focused on substance.
Trade, investment, and the quieter economic logic
Jordan is not a major trading partner for India. Bilateral trade remains modest compared to India’s exchanges with the UAE or Saudi Arabia. Still, the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Jordan offers niche opportunities that India increasingly values.
Pharmaceuticals are one example. Jordan has a strong generic drug manufacturing base, while India is a global supplier of affordable medicines. Collaboration here is practical, not flashy.
Fertilisers are another area. Jordan’s phosphate reserves make it relevant to India’s food security concerns.
Energy cooperation, especially in renewables, also surfaced during discussions. Jordan has invested heavily in solar and wind power, partly to reduce dependence on imported fuel. Indian firms see that as a workable entry point.
In Amman, officials spoke less about grand deals and more about incremental gains.
Sometimes that’s how durable partnerships are built.
Security, diplomacy, and India’s multialigned message
Perhaps the most important signal from the visit lay in security and diplomacy.
Jordan sits at the crossroads of several conflicts. Syria’s instability to the north, tensions in Israel-Palestine to the west, and Iraq’s fragile recovery to the east all affect it directly. Jordan’s survival strategy has been to stay engaged with everyone, without burning bridges.
India’s approach looks strikingly similar.
New Delhi has avoided choosing sides in most Middle Eastern rivalries. Instead, it maintains parallel relationships, even when those partners distrust one another.
Jordan validates that method.
During the visit, both sides emphasised counterterrorism cooperation, intelligence sharing, and de-radicalisation efforts. These are areas where Jordan has deep experience and India has growing concerns.
The conversations also touched on regional diplomacy, including humanitarian issues linked to Gaza and Syria. India’s emphasis remained consistent: dialogue over escalation, stability over slogans.
It was a familiar line, delivered in a setting that reinforced it.
Key areas quietly highlighted during the visit included:
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Counterterrorism coordination and intelligence exchange
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Cooperation on religious tourism and heritage conservation
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Academic and cultural exchanges to deepen people-to-people ties
None of this was dramatic. That was the point.
Why Jordan fits India’s long game in the region
India’s Middle East policy has changed over the last decade. It is more active, more visible, and more confident. But it is also careful.
Jordan fits into that design as a low-risk, high-trust partner.
It does not demand exclusivity. It does not force India into binary choices. And it offers access, insight, and credibility across regional fault lines.
For Jordan, India represents a rising global power that engages without lecturing. It brings technology, trade potential, and political weight, without the baggage of colonial history or interventionism.
That mutual comfort showed during the visit.
There were no sweeping declarations. No dramatic announcements. Just a steady reinforcement of ties that had sat dormant for too long.
In a Middle East where alliances shift fast and rhetoric often outruns results, that kind of diplomacy can be surprisingly effective.
