Round The World
New Delhi, 21 May
2015
Modi’s 3-Nation
Tour
BOOSTING
‘ACT EAST’ POLICY
By Amrita
Banerjee
Research
Scholar, JNU
Having visited 17 countries in his
first year in office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s diplomatic feats made him
set his eyes this time on the strategically-important East
Asia. His three nation Asian visit remained dominated especially
by his tour to China whereas
his stops in Mongolia and South Korea received less
attention. But unlike the other tours, this visit was markedly different
because it was not just about inking economic deals but had certain strategic
connotations as well. This East Asian tour was undertaken at the first place to
boost India’s East Asia policy, align it with
‘Make in India’
initiatives and bring momentum to the country’s foreign policy in the
strategically significant region not just by ‘Looking East’ but also ‘Acting
East’.
But beyond this rhetoric, there is
some hard hitting reality as well. This Prime Ministerial tour should be seen at the backdrop of an increasingly volatile
Asia. The countries of this continent seem to
be locked in a peculiar predicament. States in this region are trading,
investing, and growing together but this economic bonhomie is also beset by security
tensions and dysfunctional diplomatic relationships. This situation is
especially true in the case of India
and China.
Beijing might be New Delhi’s largest trading partner but border tensions, its
increasing investments in Pakistan and elsewhere in India’s neighborhood and
stubbornness in the South China Sea undermine that positive dynamic.
Since both Modi and President Xi are strong leaders who have assertive
and bold working styles, there was widespread speculation about a possible
solution to the border dispute. The boundary issue has been a sticking point in
the relations between the two major Asian countries. Even though both are
making efforts to settle it through Special Representatives’ talks that have
held 18 rounds of discussions so far, this vexing issue continues to linger on.
Both leaders did touch on some tough issues like border and trans-border rivers
in the recently concluded meeting but nothing tangible came out of it.
Though good amount of groundwork
seems to be already done, it is time that both the leaders have to face the
issue head on if they want to resolve it while they are in office. Sorting out
a sensitive issue with a neighbour isn’t easy, more so when we have a war
history with that country and especially today when the relationship gets
marked by low levels of mutual trust.This meeting did not result in any concrete agreement on the border issue but as a measure to
strengthen trust, Modi-Xi sealed their deal with some non-controversial ‘do-ables’
taking into account their complementarities.
The most important takeaways
included: $22
billion in business-to-business pacts, military headquarters hotline
connection, task force to counter widening trade deficit and market access
issues and about dozens of pacts in the area
of cooperation in skill development, railways, mining and minerals,
broadcasting, tourism, ocean studies, establishing sister city relations and
consulates in Chennai and Chengdu and E-visa
facility extended to Chinese nationals. As can be seen from the nature of
the pacts, geo-economics and not
geo-politics seemed to dictate Modi’s visit to Beijing. However, relying on this alone could
be detrimental because Beijing had recently
expressed the ‘undeniable fact’ of the existence of a ‘huge dispute’ with India with
reference to the border. Against this backdrop, to expect the burgeoning
economic engagement and trade relations to serve as leverage in settling the
longstanding boundary issue would be a mistake.
His visit to Mongolia
and later South Korea
in his second and final leg of the tri-nation tour respectively also focused on
economics but it had a distinct strategic flavor as well. Mongolia is a geographic pivot between China and Russia. In this context, Modi’s visit to Mongolia
can be seen in the context of China.
Noting the fact that Beijing has deepened its
presence around India with
several projects in nations on India’s
periphery, it’s high time for India
to tie up partnerships in China’s
periphery as well. Mongolia,
as India’s strategic partner
and a ‘third neighbour’ can be significant for New Delhi in this regard. Besides this, Ulaanbaatar would play a key role in Asian energy
transportation, serve as a source of uranium, could factor in New
Delhi’s Russia
policy and safeguard its interests in the Asia-Pacific region.
Thus, in an attempt to reinvigorate New Delhi’s
ties with Ulaanbaatar further, India announced
a $1bn line of credit for the country to support its economic expansion and
infrastructure building and further signed agreements in areas of border and
cyber security. Visiting the country on the occasion of Ulaanbaatar’s
25 years of democracy celebrations, Modi even called Mongolia ‘the new bright light of
democracy in our world’. Hence, his trip to Mongolia,
the first by an Indian Prime Minister, was a win-win situation for mutual
benefit because it not only helped Ulaanbaatar
but also offered a new strategic leverage to New Delhi
in dealing with China.
Similar was the case with South Korea. With an up gradation
of ties to ‘special strategic partnership’ and armed with seven bilateral
agreements inked between President Park Guen-hye and Modi on Double Taxation
Avoidance Convention, cooperation in shipping and logistics, audiovisual
co-production, transport, highways and electric power development in new energy
industries, this meeting was much beyond economics.
South Korea is a democracy and one country that has made tremendous
progress with its infrastructure, technology, and economy from which India can
learn a lot especially with reference to its ‘smart cities’ project. It is also
one of the first countries that sought to increase economic engagement with India after it initiated its ‘Look East’ policy
with Seoul’s
investment touching to an estimated $3 billion in the past two decades. Besides
this, Seoul has a strategic significance as well
because New Delhi is increasingly wary of Pyongyang’s increasing proximity to Islamabad in the recent times. With the
conclusion of a couple of successful joint military exercises with Seoul in the past, India
surely can rely on South Korea
as an important pivot for itself besides Vietnam in the Asia Pacific region.
In a nutshell, if an analysis is
done on Modi’s Asian tour, it would evoke mixed responses. Whereas the
India-China border issue remained unresolved, the host of economic agreements
inked between them might bring some goodwill in future so that this sensitive
issue is finally sorted out. The less hyped Mongolia
and South Korea trips, in
fact, were more successful as they strengthened India’s
strategic linkages with countries on China’s periphery besides bringing
some economic benefits as well.
While Modi’s critics at home may
complain about his foreign policy ventures being full of hype, the truth is
that he is taking some cautious and calibrated steps to keep India’s
interests intact in this uncertain world of anarchic realpolitik. In this regard,
Modi’s foreign policy is markedly different from his predecessors and is worthy
of praise. ---INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)
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