The Hindu : Divided by the Indian Ocean

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 28, 2003

Opinion

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Divided by the Indian Ocean

By C. Raja Mohan

PERTH: As the clear blue waters of the Indian Ocean wash the shores of this city on a sun-drenched winter day, a tinge of regret tugs at your heart. For, India is conspicuous by its absence in what has become a welcoming home for its people, business and culture.

When the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, arrives in Australia for a two-day visit next month, Perth will not be on his itinerary. But it should be on his mind. If the Indian Ocean is the natural strategic realm for New Delhi, Perth in the south-eastern corner of the littoral is where India should be showing its flag with some vigour.

In a country whose unique geography links it to many parts of the world — South Pacific, East Asia, South East Asia and the Indian Ocean — there are multiple identities defining Australia's self-image and driving its external policies.

Western Australia, which forms nearly one half of this continent-sized nation, has over the recent years actively sought to raise its profile in the Indian Ocean littoral through commerce and cultural cooperation.

The region centred around Perth once wanted to secede from Australia amidst grievances of national neglect and eastern dominance. Today, it wants to bring the weight of one of Asia's largest economies to bear upon the Indian Ocean Rim.

Perth is directly connected by air to most cities in South East Asia and has a booming trade with the Indian Ocean countries. For students and holidaymakers from the region, the city's salubrious climes are a huge attraction.

While Indian students now travel to Australia in their thousands, few make it to the Western seaboard. Few Indian businesses partake in its booming economy. Perth has its arms stretched out to the Indian Ocean but remains largely out of India's strategic imagination. Ending that void should be at the top of Mr. Sinha's agenda in Australia.

* * *

It is often said that India and Australia are divided by the Indian Ocean. Despite their common democratic values and the many legacies of the Anglo-Saxon culture including cricket and the Commonwealth, the two countries have found it impossible to build a partnership in the Indian Ocean region that they share.

In India, the image of Australia as an "albino Kangaroo marooned in a yellow sea" has persisted since the 1950s. But Australia has come a long way since then. The political insistence on an all-White nation has long been buried in Canberra. Australia today is a multi-cultural nation with an ever-increasing migration from Asia.

While India has always wondered if Australia was part of Asia, the establishment here has clinched that debate. While politicians quarrel about how much energy should go into dealing with Asia, there is no doubt any longer in Canberra that its destiny lies in the great continent.

If India has trouble coming to terms with the reality that Australia is a nation that emphasises trade, welcomes non-white immigrants and sees itself as part of Asia, Canberra too is weighed down by the past in thinking about India. For the Australian elite, India remains a nation that is difficult to do business with. There is also the deep sense of caution that all previous efforts at building bridges between the two nations had come to nought. There is not enough awareness of how much India has changed over the last decade.

* * *

Through the 1990s, India and Australia sought to work together on a number of issues but found themselves irritating each other even more. In the mid-1990s, the two nations along with South Africa tried to promote the idea of Indian Ocean regionalism. But India and Australia differed on everything about building the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC). They argued about the nature of the membership and the purposes of the organisation. With the two largest economies of the IOR-ARC divided so deeply about its orientation, it is small wonder that the organisation has become moribund.

In the early 1990s, India and Australia began what seemed a rare cooperation on a multilateral arms control treaty — the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. But as India turned against the CTBT and declared itself a nuclear weapon power in 1998, Australia reacted with vehemence pushing the bilateral relations to their lowest point.

The shock of confrontation, however, has forced the two countries to take a deep breath and reconsider their relationship.

They have agreed to put aside the past differences and there is a new political will in both the capitals to explore common ground.

Amidst a rapidly changing environment in their shared region, Mr. Sinha and his Australian interlocutors should find it easy to come up with a concrete agenda of bilateral cooperation — from counter terrorism to freer trade — leading to a more prosperous and secure Indian Ocean littoral.

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