New Delhi, Jan 12
India's 'Look East' policy, revolving around accelerated economic
and strategic engagement with Southeast and East Asian countries,
will get fresh impetus during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's
three-day visit to the Philippines to attend summits with 16 leaders
of the region Saturday.
Manmohan Singh will meet 10 leaders of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the 5th India-ASEAN summit Sunday and will
participate in the second East Asia Summit of 16 countries
comprising the ASEAN, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia
and New Zealand Monday.
The two summits, which were postponed last month due to an
approaching storm, will be held in Cebu island resort, the second
most important metropolitan centre and the commercial hub of the
Philippines.
Manmohan Singh's visit comes at a time when the economically vibrant
East Asia region is looking at India anew as a rising Asian power,
with a liberalizing economy growing at the rate of over eight per
cent, and is keen to give economic relations a strategic character.
The visit also comes against the backdrop of India's improving
relations with the US and China - two important players in the
region - and the rise of Beijing and an assertive Tokyo itching to
play a bigger role in East Asia.
"There is scope for India, China and Japan playing a competitive and
strategic role in the region which will enable other countries to
have maneuverability and contribute to their advancement," K.
Subrahmanyam, who heads the prime minister's task force on global
strategic developments, told IANS.
The involvement of major Asian powers in the region need not be
confrontational, but could contribute to regional balance.
"Interests of the major powers - India, China, Japan, Russia and the
US - will intersect more and more in East Asia as we move into the
21st century," said Ranjit Gupta, a former Indian envoy to Thailand.
Ahead of his visit, Manmohan Singh, who has espoused the idea of an
Asian Economic Community and is a great believer in the "arc of
prosperity" across the region through a pan-Asian Free Trade
Agreement, underlined India's commitment to increased economic
interaction with the economies of East and South-East Asia and
expressed New Delhi's keenness to be a member of the wider Asian
Economic Community.
This rethink on India' role in the region was forcefully articulated
by Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar early this week
here. Addressing the annual conclave of the Indian diaspora
recently, Jayakumar envisaged a "central strategic and economic
role" for India in the regional architecture and that it was an
integral part of the emerging East Asia equation.
As India and ASEAN negotiate an FTA, India has offered to prune this
list to 490 from 563, but the ASEAN is insisting that New Delhi
prunes the negative list to 387 products. East Asia accounts for
one-third of India's trade.
Although differences over the negative list continue to shadow
India-ASEAN negotiations, no one is in doubt that given the huge
potential of trade and investment ties between the ASEAN bloc and
one of Asia's fastest growing economies, the FTA will become a
reality in the not too distant future.
Clearly, from India's point of view, the focus in the two summits
will be on giving more economic substance to the burgeoning ties and
other aspects of the broader relationship, most notably strategic,
in the context of the rise of China and the emergence of India as a
regional force.
"Strategic role has to be economic, financial and technological. So
there is huge potential. India's increased engagement with the
region will lead to more foreign investment in India and keep
pressure on Indian business and economy to be more globally
competitive," said Subrahmanyam.
Enhanced cooperation in areas of entrepreneurship development,
English language training and information technology will be other
important items of Manmohan Singh's agenda at the India-ASEAN summit
Sunday.
Energy security and clean technologies, trans-national cooperation
in combating terrorism and collective security of sea lanes in the
Indian Ocean region are some of the pivotal issues at the second
East Asia Summit that is still finding its direction and defining
its role in a multi-polar world.
A declaration on energy security that will focus on cost-effective
efficient utilization of energy and exploration of alternate sources
of energy like bio-diesel will be issued at the end of the East Asia
Summit.
Education, financial cooperation and ways to control pandemics like
aviation influenza and natural disaster management will be other
important themes of the East Asia summit.
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