India seeks comprehensive cooperation with ASEAN

India seeks comprehensive cooperation with ASEAN

India is among the Asian dialog partners of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee is to attend the Second India-ASEAN Summit on Wednesday
in Bali. The Jakarta Post's Kornelius Purba spoke with Indian
Ambassador to Indonesia Hemant Krishan Singh on the visit. The
following is an excerpt of the interview.

Question: Could you tell us a little more about the planned visit
of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee?
Answer: My Prime Minister is looking forward to attending the
Second ASEAN-India Summit in Bali on Oct. 8. Since the first
Summit held last year, and in keeping with decisions taken at
that Summit, both ASEAN and India have worked to develop
concrete and positive outcomes from the Second Summit.

We are happy to have reached a stage where we will be
able to make quick progress (in ASEAN-India relations). At the
Second Summit, we will be concluding a Framework Agreement on
Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between ASEAN and India, which
will be signed by heads of state and governments.

We will also be acceding to the Treaty of Amity and
Cooperation (TAC) in Southeast Asia. The Summit will also adopt
an ASEAN-India Joint Declaration for Cooperation to Combat
International Terrorism.

Could you explain the latest developments in relations between
India and ASEAN?

We have made very rapid strides in our relations with ASEAN
over the last 11 years. We were late starters, but the pace of
progress has been excellent, particularly in the past year,
bringing us to a situation where we will be signing three major
agreements at this Summit.

The process began in 1992, when we became sectoral dialog
partners. In 1995, we became a full dialog partner when we also
joined the ARF (ASEAN Regional Forum). In 2002, India became a
Summit-level dialog partner to ASEAN.

In the meantime, much thought has been given on both sides to
achieving the potential of the relationship, particularly in the
economic field. By the time we came to the First Summit last
year, there was agreement among the leaders that we needed to
work on a Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic
Cooperation. This was successfully negotiated, and will be one of
the major achievements of this Summit.

We have also decided over the last year that India will accede
to the TAC, which is a model for developing inter-state relations
and resolving disputes and differences through peaceful dialog.

There are fears here over the growing rivalries between
regional superpowers like India, China and Japan. Your comments?

As far as we are concerned, we view this not as a situation of
emerging rivalries, but a situation of emerging partnerships.
These partnerships are emerging between ASEAN and Japan, between
China and ASEAN, and now also the partnership between ASEAN and
India.

And when you talk about partnership between countries -- in
this case between the regional grouping of ASEAN and major
countries of Asia -- you are basically looking at the importance
each side attaches to building its relationship with the other,
good political understanding, forward looking economic ties,
trade liberalization and investment regimes, which can bring
mutual benefits.

We look at it, therefore, as a much more wholesome package of
regional partnerships. As far as related countries are concerned,
we enjoy excellent relations with China -- our relationship is
growing both in terms of political understanding and in terms of
our economic relationship.

Both of us are quite clear (as to) how important our
relationship is for the prosperity, stability and peace of our
Asian continent and beyond. Similarly, India has a long-standing
economic relationship with Japan.

How will ASEAN and India develop their relationship?

What the Framework Agreement really envisages is an India-
ASEAN Trade and Investment Area (RTIA), whose components include
free trade in goods and services and a very highly liberalized
investment regime, which benefits the countries of the RTIA.

The second component is that we are committed to developing
our political relationship. We also believe that one of the
common challenges of the day that we are faced with in India and
in this region, is that of combating terrorism.

We are also developing functional cooperation with ASEAN,
which is conducted under the ASEAN-India Cooperation Fund,
provide by India every year to the ASEAN Secretariat.

The main activities concern science and technology issues,
sharing the strengths of India in various fields of science or
technology, whether it is agricultural technology, information
technology, bio-technology or space technology and its
applications.

India has a major human resource development program for ASEAN
countries and offers special programs to the CLMV (Cambodia,
Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam) countries under the Initiative for ASEAN
Integration.

What is the current trade volume between ASEAN and India?

At the moment, we have a trade turnover of roughly US$13
billion. Trade is increasing very rapidly, and we are targeting a
turnover of $30 billion by 2007.

We are quite hopeful that we will be able to achieve this,
especially as we are taking new initiatives by signing the
Framework Agreement and by commencing work on the free trade
area, which will be launched in January 2006.

What are your thoughts on bilateral relations between
Indonesia and India?

We are looking forward very much to my Prime Minister's
meeting with the President of Indonesia on the margins of the
ASEAN Summit. This will be continuing a tradition of annual
exchanges between us at the highest level.

We attach importance to our relations with Indonesia in both
the bilateral and regional contexts. Indonesia is an immediate
neighbor for us. Like India, Indonesia is a large, diverse,
pluralistic democracy.

We share the values of democracy and pluralism between us, and
considering that we are the two largest pluralistic democracies
in Asia, it is natural that we need to work together ... We have
a lot of experiences to share. As Asia's largest pluralistic
democracies, we have a mutual stake in each other's prosperity,
stability and territorial integrity.