Nurturing India-SE Asia ties
Nurturing India-SE Asia ties
Salman Haidar, Former Foreign Secretary, The Statesman,
Asia News Network, Calcutta
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has just been on a visit
to Singapore and Cambodia. He follows hard on the heels of his
minister for external affairs, who was in several other countries
of the region just a few days ago. Once more, there is an
eastward look to Indian policy. Another step has been taken in
the decade-long, fitful quest to become seriously engaged in
Southeast Asia.
This is an important neighborhood for India and it needs
continuous attention. Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong of Singapore
is an old friend and a consistent advocate of stronger ties
between ASEAN and India.
He took the initiative in obtaining dialog-partner status for
India against considerable opposition from some members of
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), who called for
simultaneous acceptance of Pakistan in the same capacity.
Enhanced status as a dialog partner enabled us to be part of
the Asian Regional Forum where security matters relating to Asia
are discussed between members of the ASEAN and a select few
regional and non-regional countries. That, more or less, is where
our venture into Southeast Asia has remained. Efforts by
successive Indian administrations to find space in the economic
grouping of the Pacific Rim countries APEC or the Asia-Europe
Summit ASEM have failed to bear fruit.
The only important new move will be the forthcoming top-level
meeting called ASEAN-plus-one, which provides for concentrated
dialog between the regional organization and one selected partner
at a time. This slow evolution of institutional links properly
reflects the very gradual progress in substantive relations.
Singapore long ago identified India as a partner for the future,
and India welcomed the prospect of sizable investment from that
quarter.
Some promising projects were identified, like the possible
entry of Singapore Airlines, in collaboration with a local party,
into the domestic civil aviation sector. That did not survive a
resourceful rearguard struggle by vested interests in India.
Others have done better, including some infrastructure projects
and joint projects for scientific collaboration, especially in
information technology.
Goh has been patient despite the many roadblocks. Even today,
despite all the reforms since the first eastward venture a decade
ago, India's economy is much less open than those of Southeast
Asia. This is the essential constraint in the rapid growth of
relations. One can expect a much larger and freer flow of
economic exchanges with the region as the reform process in India
gathers momentum. The visit to Cambodia had an altogether
different character.
Through the 1980s, when Kampuchea (as it was known as then)
was ostracized by most of the world, India was one of the few
that continued on friendly terms with Phnom Penh. We helped
restore and preserve the great temple complex of Angkor Vat, for
which we received bitter criticism from European agencies that
felt this was their reserved domain.
The visit to Southeast Asia has given rise to some comments
about a new strategic vision that drives us eastward. What is
seen as an emerging security partnership between us and the U.S.
is believed by some observers to have opened up a whole new area
of opportunity in the region. Such thoughts are vague and
nebulous and should be put away.
No such role is asked of us in the region. ASEAN is practical
and down-to-earth in its ways, not given to the airy projections
that sometimes overtake our policy makers. We need to adjust our
own ways to secure better openings for ourselves in the region.
If Vajpayee's visit did something along those lines, it will have
achieved as much as should be asked of it.