A star in the east

People are not usually allowed to meddle in diplomacy. But here is a classic case of public diplomacy packaged together by the government and the Confederation of Indian Industry. Above all, the Chalo Asean car rally is a celebration of the gains from India’s nearly decade old ‘Look East Policy’ and its immense unrealised potential. The rally, in fact marks the second phase of India’s look east policy.

It is also about a rare strategic imagination in New Delhi: of open borders and free flow of goods and people between India and its neighbours to the east in Asia. If Europe can do it, why not Asia?

INDIA is determined to return to the east, after decades of thumbing its nose against the ASEAN. In the name of socialism and self-reliance, India abandoned its traditional markets in South East Asia and ignored its friends and immense good will for it in the region.

When the nations of the east embarked on dramatic economic reforms many moons ago and integrated themselves with the global economy, superior India, wallowing in Third Worldism, dismissed them as lackeys of American imperialism.

By the early 1990s much of East Asia had escaped from the tragic confines of the Third World and began to deliver unprecedented prosperity to the people. When India went bankrupt in 1991 and initiated economic reforms, the first place it turned to was the ASEAN.

Initiating the look east policy, the Congress government led by P V Narasimha Rao sought trade, political cooperation and institutional links with ASEAN. East and South East Asia became an important part of India’s new economic flows and global engagement.

India became a full dialogue partner of the ASEAN and a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum that discusses security issues. Besides ASEAN, South Korea, Australia and China too have become important parts of India’s new trade and investment flows. Japan has initiated a tentative security dialogue with India.

THE second phase of India’s look east policy will prove to be more demanding. On the economic front India is now negotiating a free trade agreement with the ASEAN. Free trade agreements always bring the worst in domestic politics. Lobbying by different interest groups to who stand to lose with the inflow of cheaper competition from abroad will try their best to undercut the gains for the consumers.

India is also expanding its strategic engagement with the neighbours to the east—by signing new defence agreements such as those with Singapore. These arrangements are designed to expand the reach of Indian armed forces. India is also undertaking broader tasks to police the sea-lanes of the eastern Indian Ocean, for example in the Malacca straits.

In phase two of the look east policy, India is seeking direct physical connectivity with the nations of the ASEAN. India is building roads across Myanmar into Thailand and beyond. India has underlined its commitment to build a rail line from New Delhi to Hanoi.

The focus on connectivity is also linked to the domestic objective of promoting the rapid economic development of the North Eastern provinces. New Delhi has finally recognised that the future of the North East is now inextricably linked to the markets in South East Asia. That precisely is why Manmohan Singh is seeing off the Chalo Asean car rally Guwahati, the city of his domicile.

India’s game plan in the second phase of the look east policy will remain unrealisable until it finds ways to improve both the infrastructure and the larger political conditions within the North East. Equally important is the need to improve relations with Bangladesh that remains India’s principal physical barrier to the movement of men and material to the east.

When these two obstacles are removed, you would be all set to drive out to the far corners of east and south east Asia in a car from anywhere in the country.