Round The World
New Delhi, 8 March 2011
India-ASEAN Future
CRUCIAL FOR ASIA
GROWTH
By Monish Tourangbam
Research Scholar, School of
International Studies (JNU)
India-ASEAN (Association
of South-East Asian Nations) relations are a reflection
of the complementariness of interests between the two entities. As India chooses to embark on a benign projection
of its rising power, it has become imperative to chart a foreign policy
commensurate with its ambitions in Asia and
the world.
For India’s power
to be accepted in the Asian Continent, it needs to look beyond its immediate
neighbours in the sub-Continent, and diversify and cement its relations mainly
with the South-East Asian nations, the very essence of its Look East Policy and
its continuing effort to sustain and improve ties with a regional body like
ASEAN.
As India’s External Affairs Minister SM Krishna
said during his inaugural address at the recent India-ASEAN Delhi Dialogue III,
“It has been a gratifying engagement for us, an engagement which has drawn
strength from India’s
rapidly developing bilateral ties with individual ASEAN countries, and from our
millennia-old bonds with the countries and civilizations of the region.”
Reflecting on the
kind of role that India sees
for itself and the extension of its own democratic nature to its regional
calculations, India’s
National Security
Adviser Shivshankar Menon remarked at the Dialogue III, “'From the Indian point
of view it (the new Asian security order) should be open, it should be flexible
and it should be inclusive. This is essential for the order to work.”
India’s
strengthening relations with the individual countries of the ASEAN and the
regional body at large is mutually reinforcing. The foreign policy vision of a
rising India should reflect an enlargement of vision and a continuous effort
towards cultivation of resources to increase its zone of influence, albeit in a
more diplomatic and friendly manner without evoking sentiments that could brand
India as a meddling power.
Undoubtedly, this
is basically where India
could chart out a more benign space for itself in the South-East Asian region
despite the overwhelming presence of the Chinese power. As Krishna
said, “We feel that the principles of State sovereignty and non-interference in
internal affairs of others must be the bedrock of our cooperative endeavours.”
India’s
strategic and diplomatic maneouvers in South-East Asia are signs of its intent
to play a more substantial role in Asia. This
ambition is a result of New Delhi’s rise as one
of the major players in the world and a healthy competitor to rising China. Since
the liberalization of the Indian economy and the proposition of India’s ‘Look East Policy’ in the early 90s,
policy-makers in New Delhi
have increasingly tried to tighten and expand relations with the South-East
Asian countries.
India-ASEAN
relations have gradually evolved and matured over the years, corresponding with
the changed nature of international politics in the post Cold-War era along-with
New Delhi’s deliberate attention towards the East and South-East Asian
countries. Over the years, India’s
relations with the ASEAN have reached a full dialogue partnership from a
sectoral one.
Moreover, regular
India-ASEAN summits since 2002 have substantially added to the seriousness of
the ties and provided a platform for regular, sustained negotiations and
deliberations. The trajectory of the relationship has been essentially
encouraging with relations having diversified, covering political and security
dimensions. India
has been an active participant of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and many other
efforts towards regional integration.
The multitude of regional
organization that have been on the advent since the end of the Cold War are
symptomatic of the inter-connectedness of economies and other forms of interest
among different countries, specifically within the same geographical region.
The complex inter-dependence among many countries is the nature of
international politics in the 21st century and it is very normal
that countries within the same region and also beyond would build bridges and
try to amplify the convergences among them.
In an era when shocks in a country can have
viral-like repercussions in many others around the world, countries need to
come together more than ever before, looking for uncharted territories and
moving beyond the conventional zone of interest. New Delhi’s continuing success
with the ASEAN countries is germane to both to the growth and sustenance of
India as a major economy in the world and also salient from the view of keeping
alive some healthy competition in the Asia given the fact that China is being
projected as the next great power in the international system.
As such, India and its relations
with the ASEAN countries have a major role in shaping the future of Asia, and
by repercussions the future of international politics. During the Delhi
Dialogue III, Menon also reflected on the success of India-ASEAN cooperation in
tackling piracy in the Malacca Straits and called for replicating the
cooperation model for promoting the new security architecture too for the
region. He also emphasized that Asia, as the fastest developing region had to
deal with security issues and it had “the most to lose from instability and insecurity
in the international system.”
The shifting nature of power is something
constant in international politics, and the 21st century is being
already labelled an Asian century, in which the two rising giants, India and
China will definitely play a big role. As the saying goes: With great powers,
comes great responsibilities, India is at a great juncture in its history,
travelling an upward journey to major power status.
According
to sources, India and ASEAN are expected to widen their trade engagement by
signing a free trade agreement (FTA) next year that will cover services and
investment. “Next year, we will celebrate our 20th anniversary and it would be
a commemorative summit...let's hope that at the summit, we will be able to
deliver a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) (between India
and ASEAN), because so far it is only in goods,” ASEAN Secretary General Surin
Pitsuwan said.
Recall,
India and ASEAN had implemented Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in goods in January
last year and are engaged in intense negotiations to expand this pact to
include services and investments. According to sources, India and the ASEAN are
committed to achieving a trade target of $70 billion by 2012, up 40 per cent
from $50 billion in 2010
As India deepens its
ties and employs pragmatic diplomacy to increase its influence in South-East
Asia, the repercussions in India-China relations are inevitable. China
considers itself the unchallenged “dragon” of the Asian Continent; hence the
Indian “elephant” strides would be unsettling. But if Indian foreign policies
manage to ruffle feathers and unsettle the Chinese strategic community, then
India must have been doing something right.
Clearly, Indian
policy-makers should create such a scenario where India’s arrival as a major
power in the international system should not be seen as a liability but as an
asset by the ASEAN countries. In recognizing India’s stature in regional Asian
and international politics, these countries should see a reflection of their
rising opportunities for their own countries in an inclusive, healthy and
peaceful Asian order. To make them realize their own success in the success of
India would indeed be the litmus test for present and future Indian policy-makers.
---- INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)
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