The Hindu : Terror and trade on Sinha's agenda

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 29, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Terror and trade on Sinha's agenda

By C. Raja Mohan

CANBERRA: In their first act of concrete political cooperation in decades, India and Australia are all set to pool their resources in the war against terrorism. When the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, arrives here next month, he will formalise a bilateral memorandum of understanding on counter-terrorism.

Sharing of intelligence and information on terrorist networks in the region, coordination between law enforcement agencies, and capacity building to deal with terrorist attacks are likely to be at the heart of the MoU.

For India, which has confronted the challenge of terrorism for nearly a decade and a half, cooperation in counter-terrorism has become the centre-piece of relations with key nations of the world. For Australia, terrorism has only recently emerged as a top national security priority.

While Canberra was quick to support the American war against terrorism after September 11, 2001, it was only with the dramatic bombing in Bali, Indonesia, on October 12, 2002 that Canberra has been forced to deal with the challenge head on.

Eighty-eight Australian citizens were among the 202 killed in the Bali bombing by suspected Islamic militants. Until then, terrorism was only a theoretical threat to Australia.

Now analysts here say that the risk to Australia from terrorism has increased sharply, and is likely to remain relatively high in the medium term.

The Australian Government is careful not to pander to alarmist warnings of a generalised threat from political Islam. But it is pointing to militant Islamic networks in Southeast Asia, in particular the Jemaah Islamia(JI), the extent of whose activity in the region came to be revealed only after September 11.

A recent report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute here underlines the fact that "circumstances in our immediate neighbourhood make it among the most vulnerable regions in the world to the operations of networks such as the Al-Qaeda."

Australia has already signed agreements on counter-terrorism cooperation with many countries in the region including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Fiji. India will be the first non-immediate neighbour that Australia will cooperate with in the war against terrorism. Senior government officials here point to India's experience in dealing with terrorism and its proximity to centres of terrorist activity as an asset to Australia. Canberra is also keen on getting a sense of the Indian assessment of the growing links between terrorist groups in the Subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

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While the absence of political cooperation between New Delhi and Canberra over the last many decades induces a lot of skepticism, senior officials here point to the "new affinity of strategic interests" between the two nations in Asia's changed environment.

The Australian Government is looking forward to Mr. Sinha's visit and hopes that successful cooperation in at least a couple of areas will overcome excessive caution and indifference in the two bureaucracies and pave the way for a new partnership.

There is a strong belief here that apart from counter-terrorism, trade and investment could be the other drivers of the bilateral relationship. Trade has expanded significantly over the last decade between the two nations from 1.2 billion Australian Dollars in 1992-93 to about 3.4 billion in 2001-02.

But it remains way below potential. There is also a sense of disappointment at the slow pace of economic reforms in New Delhi and the difficulties of doing business with India.

Mr. Sinha who has made economic diplomacy a major priority would have to find a way to push forward the commercial cooperation between the two countries. The idea of a free trade agreement with Australia presents itself.

India is already negotiating free trade agreements with Thailand and Singapore. It has also agreed to work out a similar arrangement with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a whole.

India has devoted considerable diplomatic energies to promote trade and economic cooperation with Southeast Asia as part of its "Look East" policy. But the Look East policy need not necessarily limit itself to Southeast Asia. It must cover other key players like Australia in the region. The biggest attraction, of course, is the size of the Australian economy. The Australian market is as large as that of the ASEAN as a whole.

Canberra, on its part, has traditionally been reluctant to focus on bilateral free trade arrangements, choosing instead to emphasise activism at the World Trade Organisation for a general liberalisation of global rules for commerce.

But as a rash of bilateral trade agreements come into force around the world, Australia is now negotiating such arrangements with Singapore and the U.S. Mr. Sinha then has a propitious moment to pursue his favourite theme of economic diplomacy with Australia.

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