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