Sense and sentiments

Sense and sentiments

India, which shares a maritime boundary with a few ASEAN
states including Indonesia, has never really been seen by the
organization as a direct security threat even in the context of
New Delhi's nuclear arms testing in 1998. All the same, New Delhi
has not also come in for much reckoning by the ASEAN as an
indirect consequence of its original perception, slow in fading,
about India as an insular economy. It is in this historical
context that Mr. Vajpayee's new diplomatic excursion to Vietnam
and Indonesia must be judged.

The historical circumstances of New Delhi's current engagement
with the ASEAN states seem to have impelled the Vajpayee
administration to invoke the benign images of India's
civilizational links with parts of South East Asia. While there
is nothing inherently wrong with this, New Delhi should strive to
package its "Look East" policy with much more economic and
political substance and much less cultural sentiment.

As the largest member of the ASEAN, Indonesia deserves to be
befriended on other grounds as well, given especially the
economic and political challenges of its endeavor to become a
full-fledged democracy under its President, Mr. Abdurrahman
Wahid. New Delhi's new defense-related tie-up with Jakarta does
not certainly measure up at this stage as a strategic partnership
despite the move to set up a joint commission and
institutionalize bilateral dialogue. Similarly, the latest ideas
about a systematic military cooperation between Hanoi and New
Delhi, inclusive of the proposed training of Indian officers in
jungle warfare techniques in Vietnam, do not amount to a major
deal as of now.

India's offer to help Vietnam in regard to its research and
development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes should be
carried forward in a transparent fashion. More recently, the
Vajpayee administration has appeared keen on assessing other
countries in the context of their outlook on India's credentials
for permanent membership of an expandable U.N. Security Council.
Unlike in the case of the Vietnamese leaders, Mr. Wahid's
political prevarication over Indonesia's support for India on
this matter should of course be seen in the context of Jakarta's
own aspirations.

-- The Hindu, New Delhi