Page 2 of 3 India rediscovers East
Asia By Chietigj Bajpaee
culminated
in the signing of the "Joint Statement Towards
Japan-India Strategic and Global Partnership".
The Taiwanese government under the current
pan-Green Democratic Progressive Party has also
attempted to forge a closer bond with democratic
states such as India in order to raise its
international profile and balance Beijing's
attempts to contain its role on the world stage.
Notably, the visit of Taiwanese
presidential candidate and
opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou to India in June
was the first by a senior KMT official since
Chiang Kai-shek in 1942.
While India has
remained a staunch supporter of the "One China"
policy and recognized the People's Republic of
China on the mainland over the Republic of China
authorities on Taiwan, it has, nevertheless,
pursued a policy of increasing engagement with the
island. Notably, the business community has also
taken note of the complementarity of India's
software expertise and Taiwan's hardware
expertise.
Overlapping security
concerns On the security front, India has
stepped up engagement with East Asia fueled by its
need for cooperation on counter-terrorism,
humanitarian relief, anti-piracy, maritime and
energy security, confidence-building and balancing
the influence of other powers, notably China.
Driven by the fact that more than 50% of India's
trade passes through the Malacca Strait, the
Indian navy has established a Far Eastern Naval
Command off Port Blair on the Andaman Islands.
India has also been conducting joint naval
exercises with Singapore (SIMBEX) since 1993, with
Vietnam in 2000 and has engaged in joint patrols
with Indonesia in the Andaman Sea since 2002.
Japan and India were also members of the tsunami
relief regional core group in the Indian Ocean in
2004 along with Australia and the United States.
In an attempt to build confidence, India
has also conducted a number of joint military
exercises with China in recent years. In addition
to their first joint counter-terrorism training in
November, both states also held joint naval
exercises in the East China Sea in November 2003
and the Indian Ocean in December 2005, as well as
joint mountaineering training in August 2004.
Growing multilateralism India is
also participating in a growing number of East
Asian forums on economic, political and security
issues. India became a sectoral dialogue partner
with ASEAN in 1992, a full dialogue partner in
1995, a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum in
1996, and a summit level partner (on par with
China, Japan and Korea) in 2002. The first
India-ASEAN Business Summit was held in New Delhi
in 2002. India also acceded to ASEAN's Treaty of
Amity and Cooperation in 2003.
India is
also a member of a number of track-two
(non-governmental) dialogues such as the Council
for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific and
numerous sub-regional forums, including the Bay of
Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and
Economic Cooperation, the Ganga-Mekong Cooperation
Project and the Kunming Initiative in the
Indochina region.
In many cases, India's
membership to these forums has been a result of
attempts by the region to balance China's growing
influence in the area. Notably, Japan brought
India into ASEAN+6 to dilute the ASEAN+3 process,
where China is dominant, while Singapore and
Indonesia played a significant role in bringing
India into the East Asia Summit.
The
United States and Japan have also lobbied for
India's membership to the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation. India's leadership role in numerous
sub-regional forums in the Mekong River Delta has
also been regarded by some as a reaction to
China's growing presence in the region.
East Asia in South Asia India's
growing presence in East Asia has paralleled East
Asia's growing presence in South Asia. Notably,
China, Japan and South Korea were granted observer
status to the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation in 2005. Japan's role as Asia's
leading and the world's second-largest provider of
foreign aid and its growing international
peacekeeping role has also made Tokyo an
increasingly active player in South Asia.
For example, Japan has pledged significant
aid to bring an end to the civil war in Sri Lanka
and in its first deployment under its new Ministry
of Defense Japan sent peacekeepers to Nepal in
March to monitor the ceasefire between the
government and Maoist rebels. As part of the
US-led "war on terrorism", Japan has sent
refueling ships to the Indian Ocean.
China
has been increasing its engagement with South Asia
to the quiet consternation of India. China's free
trade agreement with Pakistan went into effect in
July this year and China has also emerged as
Bangladesh's leading trade partner and arms
supplier. Beijing's support for the regime of
Nepal's King Gyanendra following his suspension of
democracy from February 2005 until April 2006 has
been a source of irritation to India.
China's efforts to develop alternative
overland routes to transport oil and gas imports
by extending the existing Karakoram Highway
linking Pakistan and China and developing port
facilities at Gwadar in Pakistan's Balochistan
province, as well as through Bangladesh and
Myanmar, have been viewed by India as part of a
"string of pearls" strategy of economic and
military encroachment into South and Central Asia.
India's rapprochement with East Asia is
also tied to a number of India's broader strategic
interests, including rapprochement with the United
States, ensuring stability along India's
periphery, meeting its energy security needs, and
fueling economic integration in South Asia.
Rapprochement with the United
States India's ongoing rapprochement with
the United States is being driven by India's
improving relationship with US allies in East
Asia, including Australia, Japan and Singapore.
The US commitment to help India emerge as a "world
power" by assisting India's military modernization
as evinced by the signing of the "New Framework
for the US-India Defense Relationship" in 2005 and
the "Next Steps in Strategic Partnership" in 2001
has prompted US allies in Asia to step up
military-to-military engagements with India.
For instance, in March 2006 Australian
Prime Minister John Howard signed a memorandum on
defense cooperation with India. In April,
Australia and Japan along with the United States
held a trilateral naval exercise off the Boso
Peninsula in central Japan, and the "Malabar-07"
US-India joint naval exercises in the Indian Ocean
in September included the navies of Japan,
Australia and Singapore as well.
Energy
security India imports more than 70% of its
oil consumption and half of its gas consumption.
At the same time, India's energy dilemmas are
shared by many states in East Asia. Asia accounts
for a quarter of the world's energy consumption,
meets 41% of its energy needs from burning coal,
holds 3.5% of the world's proven oil reserves
while having the world's second-, third-, fifth-
and sixth-largest oil importers, namely Japan,
China, South Korea and India.
These shared
concerns demand a joint, multilateral approach.
India, with other major energy consuming countries
in Asia, can cooperate on addressing shared
concerns to their energy security such as
developing regional strategic petroleum reserves,
collective bargaining to address the Asian premium
on imported oil, encouraging joint development of
disputed energy-rich territories, and improving
energy conservation and efficiency.
India's growing engagement with East Asia
also complements India's increasingly proactive
foreign policy with other regions given the
converging interests between India and other Asian
powers. For instance, in the Middle East, Africa
and Central Asia, numerous Asian states are
attempting to generate goodwill and foster peace
and development given their growing dependence on
these regions' resources.
In 2004, India
took the first step in promoting regional energy
cooperation by convening the first roundtable of
Asian ministers on regional cooperation in the oil
and gas economy in New Delhi, which brought
together the four principal Asian oil-consuming
countries - China, Japan, South Korea and India -
and engaging in a dialogue with major
oil-producing countries in the Middle East and
Southeast Asia.
Similarly, as the 123
Agreement under the US-India Peaceful Atomic
Energy Cooperation Act moves from being a
bilateral issue to a multilateral one with
necessary endorsement from the International
Atomic Energy Agency and 45-member Nuclear
Suppliers Group, India will need to seek approval
from numerous states, including pivotal players in
Asia. The recent willingness by Australia to sell
uranium to India is significant given that
Australia holds 40% of the world's uranium
reserves. The quiet
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
