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India-ASEAN Future:CRUCIAL FOR ASIA GROWTH, by Monish Tourangbam, 8 March, 2011 Print E-mail

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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