India could help SE Asia: Analyst

India could help SE Asia: Analyst

JAKARTA (JP): Despite being located in a separate geographic
region, India can play a positive role in maintaining peace and
security in Southeast Asia, a visiting Indian academic said
yesterday.

Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru
University in New Delhi, Baladas Ghoshal, acknowledged that
relations between India and its neighbors in Southeast Asia,
particularly members of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN), had declined during the past two decades.

"I did feel that India also did not do enough to cultivate
this region, and similarly Southeast Asia did not respond very
favorably at that point of time," he said of the 1970s and 1980s.

The conflicting claims to sovereignty over the Spratly islands
and the diplomatic row between Singapore and the Philippines have
recently threatened to destabilize the region.

Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies, Ghoshal said that in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s
relations between India and Southeast Asia had been very close.
The Bandung Conference in 1955 was one example of the mutual
support which existed at that time, he said.

"I think the '70s and '80s was a period when India was a
little bit aloof," he said.

According to Ghoshal, the neglect came about as a result of
the world situation combined with domestic matters that prompted
India to concentrate heavily on its internal security.

The situation is changing, he said.

Ghoshal said South and Southeast Asia were no longer two
independent systems but were now "closely inter-linked."

"India's presence in forums like the ASEAN Regional Forum
(ARF) would be a positive factor and contribute to a better
understanding of cooperative security," he said.

The ARF combines the members of ASEAN -- Brunei, Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- and the
United States, Canada, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea,
Australia, the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New
Guinea and Laos.(mds)