India's perspectives on ASEAN and the Asia Pacific Region

India's perspectives on ASEAN and the Asia Pacific Region

Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Prime Minister of India

India's relations with Singapore have grown considerably over
the last decade, but a vast potential still remains untapped.
Singapore has considerable strengths in the old economy and
ambitions in the new economy. India has needs in the old economy
and some competence in the new economy.

Moving on to a wider Southeast Asian canvas, India's close
civilisational links with the region go back over a millennium.
Historically, we have been linked by culture and commerce. India,
China and regional maritime centers like Singapore played leading
roles in the flourishing trade of Asia -- shaping the historical
development of this region. The cross-fertilization of human
experiences and the spiritual interaction between India and East
Asia has left an indelible mark on the regional art,
architecture, language and culture.

It is a fundamental fact of geography that India is in the
immediate neighborhood of ASEAN. We share land and maritime
borders with Myanmar, Indonesia and Thailand. India's Andaman and
Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal are closer to some ASEAN
states than to the Indian mainland. The vital commercial sea
lanes between West Asia and South East Asia straddle the Indian
mainland and its island territories.

We are conscious that in the first few decades after our
independence, we did not attain the full promise of our
relationship. This was not a reflection of a lower priority. It
was a consequence of the divergences in economic ideology,
political outlook and security assumptions much of which the Cold
War imposed on us. Fortunately, we have emerged from this
straitjacket.

The end of the Cold War removed the hurdles to close India-
ASEAN cooperation. India became a sectoral dialogue partner of
ASEAN in 1992, full dialogue partner in 1995, and joined the
ASEAN Regional Forum in 1996. Our Dialogue Partnership has been
active. Reflective of India's interest in intensifying its
engagement with ASEAN, we are in the process of jointly
developing an India-ASEAN Vision 2020, as a roadmap to our
mutually desired objectives.

The countries in our region are today at the forefront of
developing and introducing cutting edge technologies into their
economies. We are in the very epicenter of the Knowledge
Revolution. This provides us with a major opportunity to overcome
our historical disabilities and to compress the time gap between
successive levels of development. Each of our countries has
achieved expertise and even dominance in certain areas of
technology. It is crucial that we should cooperate in exploiting
the synergies between us, rather than duplicating capacities or
undercutting each other.

The current global economic slowdown should also exhort us to
more actively explore avenues for generating and meeting demand
on a regional basis, so that we are cushioned against the impact
of saturation of external markets. The move. towards greater
economic liberalization in the ASEAN Free Trade Area and the
ASEAN Investment Area reflects this recognition. India seeks a
mutually beneficial partnership in this endeavor.

We recognize the pragmatic logic of pursuing specific socio-
economic goals in the region through sub-regional groupings. We
therefore, strongly support Mekong-Ganga Cooperation, bringing
together Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and India. We
are also committed to the Initiative for ASEAN Integration
specifically aimed at the four new entrants into ASEAN. We have
offered our assistance to the Initiative in the development of a
communications network involving highways, railways, river
navigation and port facilities.

As home to 1 billion people, India has to be integral to any
regional process pertaining to the Asia Pacific. We have a
constructive and multi-faceted relationship with every major
country of the region. This is also true of India's relations
with ASEAN's East Asian neighbors.

The Indian economy is now rapidly integrating into the global
mainstream. Our linkages with the major economies of the Asia
Pacific are becoming stronger. I believe that this coming
together would reinforce development, peace, security and
stability in this region. India's belonging to the Asia Pacific
community is a geographical fact and a political reality. It does
not require formal membership of any regional organization for
its recognition or sustenance.

India and ASEAN are now poised to intensify their political
and security dialogue to add a new dimension to a mutually
beneficial economic and commercial relationship. We grapple with
a bewildering array of security threats, of which international
terrorism has recently thrust itself dramatically into our
consciousness. It has become crystal clear to the international
community that terrorism can be tackled and curbed only with a
global and comprehensive approach.

But the nature of our Global Village has made it necessary to
tackle even non-military threats to security in a comprehensive
manner. Poverty and shortages of food and energy threaten the
stability societies. Population growth, the rapid spread of
diseases like TB and AIDS, environmental degradation and cyber
crime are all factors of deep concern. Endemic threats from sea-
piracy, transnational crime and narcotics also continue to stalk
our region.

Let us also remember that Asia has seven of the 10 most
populous countries of the world; the largest standing armies;
four declared nuclear weapon states; and several missile
producing and exporting states. The civilizational and political
diversity of the continent provides additional volatility. On one
hand, it has been estimated that in the next 25 years, Asia will
account for 57 percent of world GDP. On the other hand, the
economic problems which first surfaced in 1997 have tended to
recur. The management of the unpredictable behavior of this
economy is also a problem with security implications.

The Asia Pacific region has to respond creatively to absorb
this change through a web of cooperative arrangements, which
would promote this transition in a stable manner.

Ethno-nationalist violence and terrorism fed by extremism are
one set of impeding factors, which need to be suppressed and
eradicated. Multicultural and pluralist democracies are the most
vulnerable to these ills, precisely because terrorists exploit
the freedoms which their societies guarantee to the people. It is
not surprising that terrorism is supported and sponsored only by
undemocratic societies and totalitarian regimes. But because
democracies represent the will and determination of their
peoples, they have the internal strength and resilience to resist
and overcome the scourge of terrorism.

Widening income disparities in the modem incarnation of the
digital divide pose the other daunting challenge. Again, it is
the democratic processes which can find the internal development
responses to the inequities which globalization tends to
accentuate in the short-term.

If, therefore, the 21st century is to be the century of Asia,
it devolves upon the democracies of our region to take the lead
in making it happen.

The article is an excerpt from the Prime Minister's address at
The Annual Singapore Lecture 2002 on April 9.