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t 21, India’s ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) reflect the resplendence and full bloom of youth. It’s also a time of transformation and graduation to the next stage in a multifaceted relationship that has entered the third decade on a high note of promise. The blossoming of the India−ASEAN ties and its ongoing transformation was aptly encapsulated in India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Brunei and Indonesia in October 2013. At the 11th ASEAN−India Summit in Brunei, India unveiled a slew of steps to galvanise relations with this economically vibrant region, which included the setting up of an Indian mission to the ASEAN in Jakarta with a full-time ambassador. The summit also saw deepening of strategic content of this increasingly important relationship. Dr. Singh robustly backed the creation of an ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 and called for creating an inclusive and balanced regional architecture. He announced that India was ready to sign the India–ASEAN Free Trade Agreement on Services and Investment by the end of this year. The FTA in services will complement a similar pact on goods, and promises to have a force-multiplier effect on the burgeoning economic relationship between the two sides. The two sides are on track to scale up the India–ASEAN trade from $76 billion to $100 billion by 2015 and double that volume by 2022. While trade and investment will remain the core of the India−ASEAN engagement, the two sides have opened new vistas of cooperation on security issues and imbued bilateral ties with the much-needed strategic depth. Speaking to leaders of the Southeast Asian countries at the 11th ASEAN−India Summit in Brunei, Dr. Singh stressed that “the growing strategic content in relations between India and ASEAN” is designed to address shared security challenges, including the scourge of transnational terrorism and maritime security. The festering tensions in the South China Sea have lent an added urgency to the strategic dimension of the relationship. India has consistently pitched for freedom of navigation, which has received across-the-board endorsement from
A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
FOR AN INCLUSIVE REGIONAL ARCHITECTURE From Brunei to Indonesia, India’s Look East policy blooms, writes Manish Chand
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(From left) Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and his wife with Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah and his wife; and Dr. Singh with Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, on the sidelines of 11th ASEAN−India Summit in Brunei
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