Revitalising India-East Asia ties

By V. Jayanth

AT LEAST some of the Southeast Asian (Asean) Governments began to feel that after Pokhran-II and the launch of the U.S.-India strategic talks, New Delhi's `Look East' policy was getting out of focus. Kargil and the persisting friction with Pakistan, and now the crisis in Sri Lanka have become major concerns of the Government of India. But these should not distract New Delhi's attention from its east.

A string of high-level visits from Asean and the visit by some Indian Ministers to that region have helped to restore the earlier warmth in bilateral relations. The Heads of Government/State from Southeast Asia came to reassure themselves that New Delhi had not abandoned its engagement with East Asia. With this Vajpayee Government appearing more stable, they sought to build a foundation for a new economic partnership.

On top of it all, the recent Asian Development Outlook released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has reconfirmed earlier forecasts that the Indian economy will maintain its firm growth path and move to the 7 per cent rung this year. All this only encourages ASEAN and even Japan as well as South Korea to work for a better relationship with India to enhance trade and investment opportunities. Before getting into the act, their leaders wanted to ensure that New Delhi was ready to reciprocate. They did not want to enlarge the sphere of cooperation if India was going to be preoccupied with just the U.S. and Europe.

The Foreign Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, entered the stage at a turbulent time and has helped see through the post-Pokhran crisis. After the initial stage of fire-fighting, he has returned to the task of seeking and building strategic partnerships, with friendly countries in both the East and the West. Even as he went about his task, Asean Governments were trying to gauge the coalition experiment going on in India since 1996. Finding this Vajpayee regime more stable than the past few coalitions, they decided it was time to review the whole gamut of cooperation with India.

Now that most of East Asia has recovered from the financial crisis of 1997 and there are indications of stability in Indonesia, the time appears ideal for India and that region to build on the foundation that is already there towards a mutually beneficial partnership on the political, economic and security fronts. With the next annual Asean Ministerial Meeting coming up in July, along with that of the Asean Regional Forum, now is the time to review the 1996-2000 phase and prepare a blueprint for the first decade of the new millennium. Even among the Asean Governments, it may be essential to choose the right partners for the future. Indian Ministers have ventured out to fathom the waters, even as Heads of some Asean Governments were here.

The year 2000 has provided several opportunities to rework the equations. First, it was the Singapore Prime Minister, Mr. Goh Chok Tong, who chose to visit India after a gap of five years. Then came the new Indonesian President, Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid, and finally, the Cambodian Prime Minister, Mr. Hun Sen. All three were seeking a new economic and political equation with India. There was always a cordial relationship with Singapore, which was proving to be mutually beneficial. But with Indonesia, there were problems with the previous regime. As for Cambodia, New Delhi had to pick up the threads again to come to terms with the new strongman, Mr. Hun Sen.

Mr. Goh Chok Tong came to meet up with the Indian political leadership and visit some of the potential investment destinations of Singapore businessmen. He appeared convinced that New Delhi's Look East policy was back in place and the time was ripe for the two economies to upgrade their cooperation. His business delegation focussed on the south - Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. These States have responded positively to the visit and the Centre too followed it up. The new Minister for Information Technology, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, led the IT task force to Singapore to forge a partnership with companies in the island State. It was an ideal sector to strike a partnership.

Mr. Wahid brought a new message from Indonesia. His predecessor, Gen. Suharto, did not really engage India too seriously. So his administration was also lukewarm, though business houses could see the potential in this bilateral relationship. Indonesia hopes to forge a strong Asian axis involving both China and India, without in any way straining the excellent ties Jakarta enjoys with the U.S. Once the socio-political tensions ease in the archipelago, Indian industry and trade must take a hard, second look at the immense opportunities there in the rebuilding of a shattered economy.

As for Cambodia, it was always on India's political radar. But because of the power struggle there, no definite moves could be made with either of the two major players. Now that Mr. Hun Sen is firmly in the saddle, there should be no problems in moving forward. Given the solid political investment made in Cambodia in the past, the focus now must be on enhancing the strategic dialogue with such a key state in Indochina. While on Indochina, Mr. George Fernandes became the first Indian Defence Minister to visit Vietnam recently. This has been swiftly followed up with a Vietnamese Navy (military) mission to India and they were shown all the facilities and potential for a strong partnership on this front.

The Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, was in Thailand for the ADB meeting this month and had an opportunity to discuss the emerging economic scenario in Asia, particularly East Asia, with his regional counterparts. Though he took a different view on the need for a regional monetary fund or mechanism, the message that he appears to have left was one of wanting to be counted along with the Asean-plus-Three (South Korea, China and Japan) in a new pan-Asian platform.

That must be the real objective now for India. Mr. Goh was quite receptive to the idea of inviting India to Asean's informal summits, to which the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea were already invitees. Without letting up on the new equation India is building with the U.S. it must work to become a part of the East Asian caucus and ultimately a member of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

From the U.S. to Australia, every leading economy in the world has recognised India's economic potential and its real areas of strength - especially IT. The Indian companies must now go global and forge joint ventures with leading players in every region to get a foothold in that market. Only then can they really become global players.

India must take up with the Economic and Social Commission for the Asia Pacific (ESCAP) the feasibility of providing the southern connection to the proposed trans-Asian Railway. This will link up India and the subcontinent, with Southeast Asia, Indochina, China, Russia and Central Asia. These are the kind of projects that can provide meaning and substance to any new partnership and help develop the hinterland countries, which badly need that connectivity.

It may be time too to enter into a dialogue with Malaysia and Thailand, which have not been able to come to terms with the new India as they recover from the economic crisis. Equally important it will be to convince Japan it is time to move forward from Pokhran and the CTBT.

India is already trying to engage China and the proposed visit by the President, Mr. K. R. Narayanan, could provide the right occasion to kick-start a new bilateral relationship with Beijing, setting aside the persisting differences. It may be worthwhile pursuing Moscow's concept of a new triangular equation among Russia, China and India.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Opinion
Previous : Search for alternatives
Next     : Lack of responsibility