Indias relationship with Myanmar and Vietnam is about more than a zero-sum game with China
Written by The Indian Express
3 min read
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The burgeoning dynamism that now characterises Indias relations with Vietnam and Myanmar presidents of both states having been visitors to India this week is,in one perspective,an obvious fruit of New Delhis Look East policy fashioned two decades ago. But while Indias mingling with Southeast Asia has moved slowly,often driftingly,the geopolitics of the region distorted that engagement,both at home and abroad,through the prism of China. Now is the time to shed Indias Middle Kingdom complex about China in dealing with Hanoi or Naypyidaw.
Both Vietnam and Myanmar are large countries,crucial to Asias balance of power,and important geoeconomic and geopolitical partners for India. Myanmar shares a long maritime boundary with India and is Indias bridge to its landlocked Northeast and continental Southeast Asia. Vietnam,a maritime neighbour only,is Indias gateway for its expanding interests in the Pacific. Its also set to emerge soon as a major contributor to the global economy. So while Delhi must move to a broader agenda in Myanmar beyond contesting Beijing for natural gas,big-ticket infrastructure projects and diplomatic mileage it should also project its ties with Hanoi above the perceived rivalry with China in the South China Sea.
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It might pay to look at what these two countries are doing. Even as President Truong Tan Sang came to Delhi,Hanoi sent a senior envoy to Beijing. Similarly,its realistic to see Myanmars suspension of a controversial dam contract with China as an instrument of bargain too. Given their strong economic ties to China,Myanmar and Vietnam are diversifying their outreach leveraging,for example,their ties with Delhi for gains from Beijing. At the same time,they are afraid of Beijing. India must recognise its only a part of this picture. But having been out of this game for long,Delhi is now conspicuously in it. Therefore,it must evolve a sophisticated approach to engage with Myanmar and Vietnam,one not confined to a narrow sense of competition with China,far less a zero-sum game. The jigsaw is much more complicated,and things can be designed for win-win equations over the longer term for all.
