27 July 2020, NIICE Commentary 5689
Dr. Sampa Kundu
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the 16th India-ASEAN Summit in Thailand on 3 November 2019, reflected on the progress made in the key elements of India’s linkages with Southeast Asia including two-way trade, cultural interactions and connectivity. These elements, along with the historical ties, have been instrumental in strengthening India’s relations with the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The strategic revival of India-ASEAN relationship started in the early 1990s with the initiation of the Look East Policy (LEP), later renamed as the Act East Policy (AEP) in 2014. As we are in the third decade of India-ASEAN partnership now, this is apt to engage more rigorously with the ASEAN countries in the economic, political, cultural and security arenas.
The ASEAN-India Vision Statement, adopted at the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit in 2012 sketched the primary areas of cooperation between India and ASEAN. It would be safe to say that the Vision Statement works as a roadmap for India-ASEAN cooperation trajectory. Divided into three primary sections, the Vision Statement called for cooperation to maintain and preserve the ASEAN-led regional processes, foster cooperation in traditional and non-traditional security areas and maintain the maritime security and freedom of navigation among other issues in the political and security realm. Under the aegis of economic cooperation, both sides had committed to achieve the target of USD 100 billion in two-way trade by 2015, utilize the full potential of a combined market of 1.8 billion people and a combined GDP of USD 3.8 trillion by realizing the ASEAN-India Free Trade Framework Agreement, and, promote and encourage the private sector investments through public-private partnerships. Both sides also expressed their willingness to advance the causes of various sub-regional organisations. The socio-cultural and developmental cooperation sector identified areas like people-to-people interactions, research and studies, protection and preservation of relics like architectural buildings, monuments, temples, pagodas and Stupas etc. It also mentioned about India’s efforts in strengthening the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) as well as India’s support to the CLMV countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam) in science and technology, innovation, e-commerce, human resource development and capacity building. Furthermore, India’s efforts in enhancing regional connectivity linking India and various Southeast Asian countries and its contribution to the building of a security architecture have been identified in the Vision.
India’s invitation to the ten heads of the states from ASEAN to celebrate the Republic Day of India on 26 January 2018 was well-received by the ASEAN members. On the same occasion, India and ASEAN also commemorated the 25 years of dialogue partnership. The Indian Prime Minister Modi chose to outline his vision about the future of India’s relations with each and every ASEAN state which was published the very next day. The table represents a summary of his ideas on India’s special relations with the ASEAN neighbours.
This trend of cooperation between India and ASEAN is expected to continue in the years to come as well. Recently, at the ASEAN virtual Summit, conducted in June 2020, the leaders of ASEAN spoke about the COVID-19 Fund to fight the post-pandemic challenges facing the region. With regard to the impact of COVID-19 in India and Southeast Asia, it would be rational if both the sides can extend their support to each other in tackling some of the common challenges. It has been identified by a number of researches that the VUCA (volatility, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment) syndrome facing Southeast Asia can be overcomed if the region is prepared for transparency, digital transformations, innovation, effective governance and government, maximum resource utilisation, overcoming the uneven developmental issues, regional integration and further cooperation with the neighbouring countries. In all these areas, a closer India-ASEAN cooperation will help both the sides to fight the common battle against the unforeseen challenges of the post-COVID-19 era. Besides these issues, at the virtual ASEAN Summit, the leaders also spoke about convergence between Mekong Sub-regional Cooperation and ASEAN; this represents the importance of Indian assistance to the CLMV countries in narrowing the developmental gaps between the ASEAN-five and the CLMV countries. With the existing official and formal arrangements of Indian assistance to the CLMV group of countries, the new era of convergence is likely to give India more opportunities to engage with the ASEAN region.
With this continued vigour of cooperation, in the long run, the Indian approach of placing ASEAN at the heart of its Act East Policy and as an important part of its Indo-Pacific vision will immensely benefit both India and Southeast Asia. However, it needs to be remembered that the issues of delayed implementation of projects and Indian withdrawal from Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) remains as serious challenges in ASEAN-India partnership. Therefore, to conclude, it can be said that the extraordinary interest in ensuring a better and stronger place for India in the geopolitics of Indo-Pacific will be achieved if India can overcome the challenges in its relations with ASEAN and move forward.
