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India's Look East Policy : PM's visit to Vietnam, Indonesia |
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Carrying forward former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s “Look East Policy”, Prime Minister Vajpayee is on a visit to Vietnam and Indonesia from January 7 to 14. The Vietnam visit would conclude on January 10.
Secretary Economic Relations, Mr. S.T. Devare, said that the visit is an expression of the intense diplomatic activity India has undertaken with the ASEAN countries in the past year and is also intended to provide sharper focus to India’s Look East Policy, which Mr. Narasimha Rao had initiated during his Vietnam visit in 1994. The visit will hopefully provide the necessary thrust to the Mekong-Ganga project, which synergises Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and India on issues of education, tourism, culture and eventually infrastructure. The project that clearly does not make a mention on China will ultimately road connect the ASEAN nations with India through Myanmar. The probable effort is to contain China through direct dealing with the economic block countries and it comes at a time when India is going to host the visits of Chinese leaders Li Peng and Zhu Rongji. The government for obviously means if not over eager to admit this openly.
Areas of cooperation
A FICCI delegation is accompanying with Prime Minister to Hanoi where a number of agreements on issues ranging from tourism and culture are scheduled to be signed. Vietnam has shown keen interest in receiving assistance from India in Human Resource Development and Training facilities. Vietnam is particularly keen on Indian assistance in the nuclear and IT sector. The visit is likely to provide discussion opportunities on a range of other issues from defence to oil exploration, railways and agriculture.
The two sides are also expected to deliberate all the slow implementation of agreements arrived at earlier. During his last visit to New Delhi, the Vietnamese President had urged the Indian industry to invest but nothing much has happened. The ONGC’s 230 million dollar project is so far the biggest Indian investment in Vietnam. The biggest problem for Vietnam is that they find Indian products to expensive and the pace of decision making very slow. For instance, very little progress has been made with regard to a proposal seeking Vietnamese assistance in jungle warfare for anti-insurgency operations. The Vietnamese wanted to buy some helicopters from India but the same were provided on a lower price by Russia and Ukraine. The same happened with locomotives. Germany clinched the deal with a more competitive offer backed by a suitable credit line. Earlier, Vietnam had wanted to buy a naval ship but Australia offered the same several million dollars cheap. Analysts, however, believe that the Australian price could not have worked out that cheap and had been lowered deliberately to enter into a defence equipment deal with this Pacific nation.
Analysts say that the Look East Policy needs to be intensified by entering into Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with ASEAN member countries. Instead of seeking to become an ASEAN member, entering into bilateral FTAs could make India an important player in the future global economic scenario. The need for India to upgrade economic ties with its neighbours has been acknowledged, but efforts to build the ties have not increased to the extent needed to increase trade and investment flows.
In stark contrast, ASEAN countries like Singapore have begun entering into bilateral FTAs, with an eye to the next millennium which is expected to the century of Asia. Singapore has concluded FTAs with Australia and New Zealand despite concern voiced by some ASEAN members. It is being suggested that India could enter into an agreement with Singapore which would give it access to the island-State’s enormous and dynamic economy.
Another tie-up which can yield rich dividends is with Thailand which is already part of the BIMSTEC (Bangladesh-India-Myanmar-Singapore-Thailand Economic Cooperation) grouping. The suggestions being made for India to look east with greater vigour are being made in the context of the changing geo-political scenario in the new millennium. Apart from the vibrancy of the ASEAN grouping, it is now evident that unification of the two Koreas is no longer a distant reality.
Indonesian visit
The Indonesian visit is from January 10 to 14. A Prime Ministerial visit to Vietnam has not taken place since 1994. The Prime Minister may have much to discuss and according to analysts, perhaps a few tips to pick up from the Indonesian President Wahid whose country is in a political turmoil and threatening to break up. A Foreign Ministry spokesman has said “we support the sovereignty and integrity of Indonesia”. On demands for independence in East Timor after obtaining autonomy, India is of the view that are amicable solution should be found according to the wishes of the people. Asked about whether there are any lessons that Delhi needed to learn from the Indonesian experience, the message from South Bloc is that Unlike the Indonesian leadership, Delhi will not allow itself to be bulldozed by the West into a situation where it is forced to accept the right of self determination as a viable option to the Kashmir problem. But irrespective of this position, the statements of the Indian Prime Minister in Jakarta will be keenly followed by the leadership in both Pakistan and Kashmir.
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