ASEAN 'no' to summit with India

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, NOV. 24. The 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations today decided it was ``too early'' to have a separate summit meeting with India or enlarge the ASEAN+3 summit into a ``plus four'' arrangement with New Delhi's participation.

Talking to reporters after the fourth informal summit here of the ASEAN leaders, the Singapore Prime Minister, Mr. Goh Chok Tong, said the matter of having a summit with India was discussed this morning.

Mr. Goh told a group of Indian reporters earlier this month during the visit of the President, Mr. K. R. Narayanan, that he would raise the issue of inviting India to the informal summit. ``The ASEAN+3 is more an East Asian gettogether,'' he said today.

After today's polite `no', India will be watching a process of more intensive engagement among the ``ASEAN+3'' _ comprising China, Japan and South Korea.

Mr. Goh said the view at the meeting was that ``it will be difficult to have an ASEAN+4'' arrangement. The leaders also considered ASEAN+India a separate forum _ the view was that it was a ``bit too early to consider this request''.

According to an AFP report filed yesterday, Mr. Narayanan made such a request to Singapore during his visit.

If India did make a formal request for being associated at the summit level with the ASEAN in a ``plus-four format'', its rejection is a serious matter for New Delhi.

The AFP report also said that while Mr. Goh would raise India's request at the meeting, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand were likely to reject it. Also, given that all decisions in the ASEAN are taken by consensus, even a single, persistent member can block any initiative.

Mr. Goh said the view taken at the summit was that since ``ASEAN+3'' itself was a new process, the forum should concentrate on strengthening the new bonding. On the informal summit itself, he said its key theme was strengthening of ASEAN integration and solidarity.

The leaders discussed several measures to ensure that the ASEAN functioned as a unified whole. ``This is not to suggest that the ASEAN is not united, but it is more to see that we present ourselves solidly as a group at international meetings and how to overcome the gaps which are now there and which prevent the ASEAN from being more integrated as an economy.''

The focus of the discussions was also on economic integration and the ability of the ASEAN to work as one economy. The leaders decided to hold an ASEAN trade fair and an ASEAN country week.

As far as India is concerned, rather than being seen as making requests or applying for a seat at the so-called high table, New Delhi's purpose would be better served by engaging more intensively on the existing forums. India is a dialogue partner of the ASEAN and member of the its regional forum (ARF). Both these forums present India with sufficient opportunity to interact with the regional grouping.

The ASEAN's emerging engagement with North-East Asia is, in a sense, a reflection of the grouping's own economic inadequacies and weaknesses. While several countries are showing impressive economic results, the grouping as a whole is suffering from fatigue.

More recently, India has taken a substantive initiative in South- East Asia with the launch of the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation grouping. New Delhi would do well to concentrate on such efforts rather than making requests to a grouping which has its own compulsions in engaging more successful growth nations, say China, South Korea and Japan.

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