Look-East Policy: Need for enlarged engagementThe commemorative India-ASEAN summit to mark 20 years of the completion of the Look-East Policy later in the year cannot be allowed to be just a milestone event. India will have to give direction and substance to the agenda and priorities for the next decade of partnership.N. Ram
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120710/edit.htm#6
Arguably, a defining dimension of India’s post-Cold War external engagement has been the Look-East Policy conceptualized by former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao two decades ago. While the politico-economic imperative of the early 1990s may have shaped its initial content and course, in the last two decades it has acquired a self-sustaining critical mass to make it an indispensable factor in our politico-economic-strategic calculations.
Today, the Asia-Pacific region is India’s leading and fastest growing economic partner, vital for our economic security; it deeply impinges on some of our domestic concerns, specially in the Northeast and in the Andaman Sea. It is linked to our maritime and ecological security and enables a coordinated holistic response in dealing with natural disasters like the tsunami and even pandemics. Its space impacts on our conventional and non-conventional security environment, including threats of terrorism, piracy, transnational crime and spread of weapons of mass destruction in undesirable hands. Above all, the region stretching from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific encompasses a space in which we could potentially play a significant role of partnership.
Asia-Pacific
If, indeed, the Asia-Pacific is likely to remain vital for our national interests, how could we build upon the significant achievements of the past two decades of partnership as we commemorate this important milestone this year? Quite clearly, our priorities will need to go beyond trade, investment and other economic areas to include our growing geo-strategic concerns in the context of rapidly changing equations in the Asia-Pacific in which India now is an important player and a necessary factor in the geo-strategic considerations of the region. For us to optimise the full inherent potential of this partnership, apart from other steps, we may need to focus on many areas of cooperation with the region, both at macro and bilateral levels, in the coming third decade of our Look-East Policy:
First, a major thrust ---- as repeatedly emphasised by the Prime Minister --- has to be on integrating our economic structures and systems with those of the Asia-Pacific and working towards a Pan-Asian economic community, selectively and step by step harmonising our approaches and policies, building upon the free trade agreements and the comprehensive economic cooperation arrangements we have entered into with a number of counties. While this thought has been articulated in the pronouncements of our leaders (the Prime Minister’s earlier reference to the “arc of advantage”), no serious steps seem to have been taken so far.
Second, priority will need to be accorded to creating and augmenting all encompassing regional connectivities and networking --- economic, infrastructural, social and institutional --- stretching from Myanmar to the Pacific coast. This too came across as a strong theme during our Prime Minister’s pronouncements in Myanmar. We will need to initiate regional consultations to identify and pursue specific projects connecting India to the entire region. So far, very little seems to have happened, although a few schemes have been on the drawing board for some time.
Closest neighbours
Third, Myanmar and Thailand, two of our closest neighbours with whom we share land and/or maritime boundaries, are pivotal to our Look-East Policy. Both are members of the nascent Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Techno- Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), a sub-regional grouping comprising two ASEAN and five South-Asian countries, potentially vital for the development and security of our Northeast. Both are our traditional partners enjoying ethnic, cultural and trans-border economic links with the northeast. Both are the key to our security, specially maritime and ecological security. Cooperation with both is necessary for our efforts to combat and contain terrorism, insurgency and trans-border crime, particularly in our Northeast. Both are potentially important economic partners vital for the development of our Northeast. Indeed, economic integration, interdependence, connectivity and cross-border traditional links are the best insurance for peace, progress and stability, particularly of our Northeast. BIMSTEC needs to be more optimally factored into our Look-East Policy. So far, in concrete terms, very limited progress seems to have been achieved.
Fourth, China’s lengthening shadows and growing presence in our neighbourhood is best countered in this strategically important space through meaningful regional cooperation. ASEAN, for example, has its own concerns about China’s intentions in the region as reflected by the South China Sea standoff. Myanmar too has begun to show unease over China’s tight embrace. Japan and South Korea have their own differing perceptions with China in the context of the geo-politics of northeast Asia. It would be useful to engage the countries of the region in a strategic dialogue to identify and evolve possible convergences. The democracies of the Asia-Pacific, specially, could cooperate in dealing with common challenges. The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), a regional security dialogue platform, could provide useful aegis for such exchange of views with India playing a more proactive role, notwithstanding China’s influential presence in the ARF. The idea cannot be to confront or counter China but to focus on the concerns of the countries of the region.
Fifth, maritime security is likely to emerge as a key concern in the coming decades. India’s pivotal role in the Indian Ocean stretching up to the Pacific could contribute to ensuring freedom of the seas, peace, security from piracy and sea-borne transnational crime and keeping this space conflict free. Our proactive engagement in this area is likely to yield positive results for our own security. Again the ARF could be used as an umbrella for such engagement with regional participants. We have already begun to see results.
Sixth, India enjoys excellent bilateral relations with almost all the countries of the Asia-Pacific, free of conflict or differences. We now have strategic dialogues with many leading Asia-Pacific countries like Japan, South Korea and some ASEAN countries. We are also members of many Asia-Pacific institutions. In the next and succeeding decades we will have to deepen and enlarge the content, scope and frequency of our strategic dialogue to include regional and global strategic issues in our discussions and evolve convergences, where possible. A shared “Asian” approach on issues of peace, security, development, democracy and on countering the challenges facing the region will have to be our larger objective in such strategic discussions. In this context, our effort could be to institutionalise strategic dialogue and cooperation arrangements, including on regional defence and security issues through the ARF and possibly the ASEAN Defence Ministers plus Meetings (ADMM+). India’s now acknowledged growing centrality in this process needs to be demonstrated and projected. India, along
with China, Japan, Australia and ASEAN, collectively, needs to shoulder the responsibilities of the new emerging Asia-Pacific security and politico-economic architecture in the coming Asian century.
with China, Japan, Australia and ASEAN, collectively, needs to shoulder the responsibilities of the new emerging Asia-Pacific security and politico-economic architecture in the coming Asian century.
India’s growing “soft power” and skills in HRD and S&T and ASEAN’s success in managing growth with equity and excellence in the service sectors, even in times of crisis, provide useful areas for enhancing cooperation involving people-to-people and grassroot links, an enduring and mutually beneficial basis for sustained cooperation. Specific task forces will need to be constituted to explore possibilities of cooperation in a time-bound manner. The direct involvement of the people is vital to sustained partnership. So far, critics would argue that India’s cooperation arrangements have been overly government-centric and government-driven. This has to change.
Finally, Asia-Pacific regional organisations like the East Asia Summit (EAS), the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia-Pacific (UNESCAP), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the ARF, the Track II Council for Security Cooperation in Asia-Pacific (CSCAP) and other dialogue arrangements and the many ASEAN-driven regional fora of which India is a member provide an opportunity to engage with China in the regional context. This could be cautiously explored and used as an incremental confidence-building measure with China. Both countries, through regional arrangements, could find themselves in a web of mutually reinforcing equations which may not only be beneficial to the region but also act as a benign factor in our own complex relations with China. The Asia-Pacific dimension of India- China relations, if handled with caution, could emerge as an important factor for peace and stability in the region, as for our bilateral relations. We, together
with the regional players, will cautiously need to explore mutually reinforcing elements with China.
with the regional players, will cautiously need to explore mutually reinforcing elements with China.
Opportunity
The next decade could be a period of opportunity for India in the Asia-Pacific. For the first time in many decades, India is becoming integral to Asia-Pacific peace, progress, security and stability. It is increasingly being seen as one of the pillars of the emerging politico-security and economic architecture of this rapidly changing region on the threshold of a promising century. More importantly, the regional perspective of India is positive and India is seen as a desired partner in a shared Asia-Pacific space. We will need to build on this opportunity by creating mutually beneficial and reinforcing imperatives of interdependence, sharing and common destiny. The time for an imaginative phase II of our successful Look-East Policy may have arrived. The commemorative India-ASEAN summit to mark 20 years of the completion of the Look-East Policy later in the year cannot be allowed to be just a milestone event. India will have to give direction and substance to the agenda and priorities for the next decade of partnership. ASEAN, from all accounts, is eager and receptive to deepening and enlarging its engagement with a potentially powerful India. Its own Look-West Policy is clearly anchored on developing closer relations with India. Are we ready?
The thrust areas
l A major thrust has to be on integrating our economic structures and systems with those of the Asia-Pacific and working towards a Pan-Asian economic community.
l Priority will need to be accorded to creating and augmenting all- encompassing regional connectivity and networking stretching from Myanmar to the Pacific coast.
l Myanmar and Thailand are pivotal to our Look-East Policy. Both are members of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Techno- Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).
l China’s lengthening shadows and growing presence in our neighbourhood is best countered in this strategically important space through meaningful regional cooperation.
l Maritime security is likely to emerge as a key concern in the coming decades. India’s pivotal role in the Indian Ocean stretching up to the Pacific could contribute to ensuring freedom of the seas, peace, security from piracy.
l India enjoys excellent bilateral relations with almost all the countries of the Asia-Pacific, free of conflict or differences. We now have strategic dialogues with many leading Asia-Pacific countries like Japan, South Korea and some ASEAN countries.
l Asia-Pacific regional organisations like the East Asia Summit, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia-Pacific, the Asian Development Bank, the ARF, the Track II Council for Security Cooperation in Asia-Pacific and other dialogue arrangements and the many ASEAN-driven regional fora of which India is a member provide an opportunity to engage with China in the regional context.
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The writer, a former Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, was closely associated with the early phase of the Look-East Policy.
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