Nurturing the neighbours

India reaches out to countries within its periphery, with the intention of building sustainable relationships

~· BY • NOEL G DE SOUZA

Stand ard & Poor is at its o ld game again This time it h as latched o nto vague id eas that India faces a financial slowdown, and the agency has thre atened to downgrade [ndia's rating. T his i s t he same raring agency which took years b efo re r eluctantly givi ng India a m ecli um raring. Meanwhile, i t h ad consistently given European countries high ratings when man y of t hem were ne arly inso lvent.

''Manmohan Singh has dedicated n ow becoming clear

This does n ot m ean that lndia is a military alliance widi t h e USA against an ybody In March rbis year lndia hosted the meeting of the BRICS leaders: Presidents Dil ma Rousseff, Dm itry Medvedev, Ma n.moh an Singh, Hu Jintao and Jacob Z una. These include some of himself to strengthening India's relationship with its periphery, which firstly encompasses its neighbours with whom it has boundaries com m on '' d1e wocld's most populous countries. of Defence says, "India is a g lobal power, and rli ey are m eeti ng thefr respon sihilities and we welcom e tl1ac " lndia has been building irs naval resources in recem years. T h.is h as received much media attentio n particularly after d1e 2008 terrotist atcacks in M umbai which were launched from the sea D asgupta and Coh en's book A1wi11g 1l)fthoHI A iming (publis hed in 2010), lauded India's successful naval modernisation, buc ic was Clirical tl1ac this success was n ot u nderpinn ed by all)' stated aims. lnclia's offi ci al stance is that its n avy is being used for p eaceful purposes such as fig h ting p iracy and to bring stability to d1e region. D asgupta an d Co h en 's book was publi sh ed two year s ago India's stan d is Around the sa m e tim e, TIME magazine, quoting the IMF (In ternacional Monetary Fund) told a different s torr Ir said that the BRlCS group (Brazil, Russia, India, Chi n a and South A fr ica) had a G DP growth of 8 % in 2010 which h ad slowed to 6% in 201 2, whereas for the USA die figures were 3% to 2°i<> and for the Eurozon e it was 2% to-0 3%

\Xlhat is intriguing a bout Standard & Poor is that this threat was published jusc when India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee was b eing touted as ics n ext President. There have been attacks on tl1e Standard & Poor threat by Indian commentators. At la st, o ne would say! At chat time a few Indian politicians like Mamata Banerjee were proposing tha c the Prim e Minister Man moh.an Singh should be the next President.

Manmohan Singh has dedicated himself co srrengrl1en in g Tnclia's rela ti o n ship wid1 its periph ery, w hich firstly encompasses its n eighbours with w h o m it has comm on bo undaries (Pakiscan, Bangladesh, Nepal , Bh.man, Burma and China) Bm there exist ochers some dis tance away wid1 w hich it has had historical and cultural relationships, snch as Afghanistan, the Gulf States and lran on t he o n e side, and Thailan d, Cambodia, Malaysia and Ind o nesia on d1e other side.

Th e US Secrecary of Defence Leon Panetta has been h aving talks wi d1 Manmohan Singh concerning regional securi ty and defence. lnclia is important wid1 regards to the Indian Ocean, as it is d1e largest navy in di e Arabian Sea and the Bay of B engal There is a shift of US naval fo rces from r11e In dian Ocean to the Pacific, w here Panetta h as signalled that six aircraft carriers will be based These events should be v iewed in the bac kdrop of th e Sou d1 Chin a Sea which Chi na clai m s as its own , against t he or11er claimants whicl1 include Vietnam , the Phillipines and Taiwan.

Th e USA is calling India a global power.

Captain John Kirby of die U S D epartme nt

M arun ohan Sing h m et

Myanmar's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi after a meeting in Yangon, and in vited her to deliver d1e n ext Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture in lndia Suu Kyi h as accepted the invi ca ti ou, hoping co vis it India b efore long Singh ann o unced that India h as o p e ned a $500 million lin e o f credit from which Myanmar can draw; India is in terested in getting energy resources from Burma.

T he A ustra lian D e fe nce JvUni ster Stephen Smith, calls Incli a a " naniral maritime partner" of A ustralia, while pointing out r11at Ind o n esia is emerging as no r just a r egiou.,'ll, but a global influence. India, Indonesia and Australia have m adtime co•operation agreemen ts lndonesia shares a common maritim e boundary with Inclia north of the is land o f Sumatra and die An daman-N icobar Archip elago. Significa n tly, ln don esia refers to the Indian Ocean a s Samuclra Hindia India's relationship wid1 the JvUd dle Ease goes back cen turies The Jl,,fiddle East is tl1e gateway to Europe. Maritime trad e, based o n th e current reversals in the Arabian Sea, existed since the rimes of King Solomon Today the Gulf States are hosts to thousands of Ind ians and odier subco n rinencals who make valuable financial contributions to tl1eir m other co1.111tries Incli a has no mili tary presence, rnilike P akistan, in those countries, bm its n avy patrols th e Arabian Sea to prevent piracy.

I nd ia's pe ri phery th us stretch es over a a considerable swad1 between South east Asia and th e Middle East, and Manmohan Singh has been busy build ing up relations hips witlun its confines.