To express chagrin and seek to publicly push others to choose India over another country, however justified our own outrage, is not perhaps a very fruitful expression of diplomacy or international politics. It would bode us better to strengthen the invested stake of a country like Saudi Arabia in our own welfare by making the economic and strategic ties too robust to override in times of localized or international conflict; and an integration of economic and security interests does this better than well-meaning but hyperbolic expressions of expectations in the media.

Indian energy diplomacy has long been plagued by a belated undertaking of due diligence back home before the concluding of agreements with foreign countries. The fact that the massive Saudi investment in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra is now caught in the crosshairs of local politics and land acquisition issues, is just one more example of this tendency. It is true that countries are always appreciative of and seek out lucrative and large markets such as India. That does not, however, imply that sovereign wealth-fund owners such as Saudi Arabia would carry an unending reservoir of patience regarding commitments coming to fruition.