Opinion The sole neighbour

In a break from that tradition,it is good news about Indo-Pakistan relations that is likely to dominate the headlines from Maldives. The current thaw in Indo-Pakistan relations and Islamabad’s proposal to normalise trade relations with India will surely be welcomed by other members of SAARC.

Even more significant has been the dramatic transformation of India’s relations with Bangladesh in the time since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came to India in January 2010.

While Delhi’s engagement with Islamabad is based on hope,ties with Dhaka are now driven by a shared commitment to resolve all outstanding bilateral political issues,deepen economic cooperation and build an enduring partnership.

Dr Singh’s visit to Dhaka in September was robbed of its full significance by the failure to sign the Teesta waters accord,thanks to a last-minute tantrum from the volatile chief minister of West Bengal,Mamata Banerjee. Yet there is no denying unprecedented progress on the full range of issues between Delhi and Dhaka.

India’s trade and investment ties,as well as political and security cooperation,with Sri Lanka and Maldives are growing. India has every reason to celebrate Bhutan’s democratic transition under the new monarch and encourage the recent moves in Nepal to take the peace process to its logical conclusion. India’s engagement with Afghanistan has now been elevated to the level of a formal strategic partnership.

To be sure,there are many problems as well — and none more important than the rapidly deteriorating situation in the border lands between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the potentially huge consequences for regional security.

Nevertheless,the Maldives summit offers a moment to savour the rare optimism about India’s relations with its South Asian neighbours. However,good mood alone is not enough to accelerate regional integration in South Asia.

The Maldives summit is not going to set the Indian Ocean on fire with the kind of agreements that are on the anvil — a regional mechanism for rapid response to disasters,a South Asian seed bank,and two agreements on regional standards.

The utterly modest pickings at the Maldives summit are not a reflection on the possibilities of South Asian regionalism. They are an important reminder of the real limitations of SAARC as the driver of South Asian regionalism.

Regional integration in the subcontinent is not going to come through the pitifully slow multilateral negotiations under SAARC. It can only come through decisive Indian leadership of South Asian regionalism.

Leadership does not only mean India proposing new ideas for collective consideration and steering them through the painful SAARC process. It is about taking positive and unilateral steps that fundamentally alter the context and structure of regional cooperation in the subcontinent.

That it is India’s task to lead the region,if necessary through unilateral actions,towards peace and prosperity is defined by its unique location in the subcontinent.

India has operational borders with all other South Asian countries except Afghanistan. None of the other members of the SAARC,except Afghanistan and Pakistan have a frontier with each other.

This unique geographic circumstance and the facts that India is the largest nation and the biggest economy in the region has meant that Delhi always had the power to mould South Asian regionalism unilaterally.

Put simply,given India’s size and the economic geography of South Asia,Delhi’s national policy decisions would automatically shape the regional environment.

India’s inward economic orientation and an insistence on strict reciprocity meant Delhi was unable to benefit from its natural preponderance in the region for much of the post-Independence period.

This began to change with the liberalisation of the Indian economy and the new political conviction in Delhi that its search for a larger global role must be rooted firmly in solid South Asian regionalism.

That India is prepared to take unilateral initiatives in promoting South Asian regionalism and present itself as an economic opportunity for its neighbours has been repeatedly articulated by Dr Singh in recent years.

The very fact that Islamabad,which has been so persistent in its refusal to engage Delhi in economic cooperation,is now prepared to normalise trade relations underlines the new recognition among the South Asian elites that they can and must partake of and prosper in India’s economic growth.

It is up to India now to strengthen this emerging trend in our neighbourhood,by reinforcing Dr Singh’s strategy of positive unilateralism. Outlining a series of national steps that will promote regional integration should be at the heart of his engagement with the South Asian leaders this week.

These steps could include,for one,further unilateral reduction of tariffs on imports from the neighbouring countries. India enjoys trade surplus with all its neighbours and it is in Delhi’s self-interest to make regional trade fair and beneficial to all.

Second,India’s many non-tariff barriers to trade with the neighbours are notorious and Dr Singh must announce a plan to dismantle them quickly.

Third,India must offer an ambitious plan for trade facilitation with its South Asian neighbours. India’s infrastructure for trans-border commerce and connectivity is poorer than most of its neighbours. Delhi will help its own border states and the neighbours by unveiling a credible action plan to modernise its border infrastructure.

For India,SAARC is the annual stage,where it must set an ambitious agenda for South Asian regionalism and demonstrate the national political will to act unilaterally in promoting it.

The writer is a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research,Delhi,express@expressindia.com