India's perspectives on ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific region 9789812301727, 9812301720, 9789812306111, 9812306110

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Reproduced from India's Perspectives on ASEAN and The Asia-Pacific Region by Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2003). This version was obtained electronically direct from the publisher on condition that copyright is not infringed. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Individual articles are available at < http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg >

INDIA’S PERSPECTIVES ON ASEAN AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

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The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies was established as an autonomous organization in 1968. It is a regional research centre for scholars and other specialists concerned with modern Southeast Asia, particularly the many-faceted problems of stability and security, economic development, and political and social change. The Institute’s research programmes are the Regional Economic Studies (RES, including ASEAN and APEC), Regional Strategic and Political Studies (RSPS), and Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS). The Institute is governed by a twenty-two-member Board of Trustees comprising nominees from the Singapore Government, the National University of Singapore, the various Chambers of Commerce, and professional and civic organizations. An Executive Committee oversees day-to-day operations; it is chaired by the Director, the Institute’s chief academic and administrative officer.

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Singapore Lecture 9 April 2002

INDIA’S PERSPECTIVES ON ASEAN AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Institute of Southeast Asian Studies

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Published in Singapore in 2002 by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies 30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace Pasir Panjang Singapore 119614 Internet E-mail: [email protected] World Wide Web: http://www.iseas.edu.sg/pub.html © 2002 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore ISEAS Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Vajpayee, Atal Bihari, 1926India’s perspective on ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific region. (Singapore lecture series, 0219-1912; no. 21) 1. India—Foreign relations—Asia, Southeastern. 2. Asia, Southeastern—Foreign relations—India. 3. India—Foreign relations—Singapore. 4. Singapore—Foreign relations—India. I. Title. II. Series. DS501 I597 no. 21 2002 ISBN 981-230-172-0 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Typeset by International Typesetters Pte Ltd Printed in Singapore by Stamford Press.

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CONTENTS

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Opening Address

Lee Hsien Loong

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II

India’s Perspectives on ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific Region

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

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III

Closing Remarks

Chia Siow Yue

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I Opening Address Lee Hsien Loong

Your Excellency Prime Minister Vajpayee, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen. It gives me great pleasure to welcome all of you to the 21st Singapore Lecture. We are honoured to have His Excellency Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee with us today on his first official visit to Singapore as the Prime Minister of India. Currently in his third term as Prime Minister, Mr Vajpayee’s career in Indian politics stretches over four decades. He served as India’s Foreign Minister from 1977 to 1980. Throughout his career he has actively participated in shaping India’s post-independence domestic and foreign policy. In addition to his political and diplomatic skills, Prime Minister Vajpayee is also an ardent champion of women’s empowerment, a critically-acclaimed poet, as well as a gourmet chef. He was named India’s best parliamentarian in 1994 in recognition of his contributions to India’s parliamentary democracy. For his selfless dedication to his country, he was conferred India’s second highest civilian honour, the Pradma Bidushan. Today, Prime Minister Vajpayee will share with us his views on India’s perspectives of ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific region. It is a timely topic given India’s increasing engagement with our region on all levels in the past few years. The end of the Cold War and globalization have fundamentally changed the external environment. The terrorist attacks on the United States on 11 September last year and the continuing global antiterrorism campaign have created new uncertainties and highlighted troubling threats to world stability. ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific region, which hitherto were grappling with the economics of

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globalization, have had to deal with new security challenges. Fresh approaches are needed to address them. First, the new security challenges transcend national borders and need to be tackled through global and regional co-operation. The global coalition against terrorism is evidence that no country or region can afford to stand alone in the midst of the new security challenge. Neither South Asia nor Southeast Asia is immune to the threats of terrorism, religious militancy and fundamentalism. At the same time, globalization is a force that can bring great benefits to many countries. Countries are realizing that they have to accept and take advantage of globalization instead of resisting it. In ASEAN, free trade and investment flows have fuelled the countries’ economic growth and takeoff. Despite the financial crisis in 1997, on the whole, ASEAN countries have prospered by riding the wave of globalization. Indeed ASEAN as a region has recognized the value of closer and deeper co-operation and has embarked on many integration initiatives to draw the region closer together. The ASEAN Free Trade Agreement came into effect this year and will eventually eliminate all import duties in the region by 2015. More importantly, ASEAN has realized the need to link up with other regions in order to expand its overseas markets and broaden the basis of its prosperity. ASEAN and China have agreed to work on a free trade agreement within ten years and ASEAN has also decided to forge a closer economic partnership with Japan. India, too, has recognized and responded to the challenges of the new era. Prime Minister Vajpayee has led India’s effort to progressively liberalize and deregulate its economy, easing rules on foreign ownership and participation, opening up hitherto protective sectors, and making India more attractive to foreign investments.

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Prime Minister Vajpayee has also been pushing for India to link up with other countries in the region to collaborate and co-operate with them for mutual benefit. He has focussed on rejuvenating relations with ASEAN countries, he has injected new vigour into India’s “Look East” policy to build deeper and more enduring ties with Singapore and the ASEAN region. The Inaugural ASEAN-India Summit in Cambodia later this year will be the culmination of the Prime Minister’s efforts and a milestone in India’s ties with ASEAN. Singapore welcomes these developments. Strong and stable relations between India and ASEAN will provide the basis for us to deepen our economic ties. It will also foster greater co-operation between India and ASEAN allowing us to complement each other’s strengths in order to ensure that this part of Asia continues to grow and to attract international investors. Together we can progress and prosper in an evermore interrelated and more interdependent world. It now gives me great pleasure to invite His Excellency Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to share with us India’s perspectives on ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific Region.

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II India’s Perspectives on ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific Region Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Mr Chairman, Deputy Prime Minister Lee, Your Excellency Prime Minister Goh, Distinguished Guests. It is a great privilege to address this illustrious gathering of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. I speak today on ASEAN and the Asia Pacific, not only because this is the Singapore Lecture. This region is one of the focal points of India’s foreign policy, strategic concerns and economic interests. It is also apt that I speak about this in Singapore. Yours is a determined and self-confident nation, which has done much over the last few decades to raise the global profile of Southeast Asia, and has provided remarkable economic leadership and dynamism to this whole region. India’s relations with Singapore have grown considerably over the last decade, but a vast potential still remains untapped. Singapore has considerable strengths in the old economy and ambitions in the new economy. India has needs in the old economy and some competence in the new economy. In this lies a major confluence of our interests. Biotechnology provides one such example. Singapore has developed a major biotechnology industry in spite of its small indigenous bio-resource base. India, with its pharmaceutical advantage and broad-based biotech research capabilities, may be considered a competitor in some areas. But there is a huge non-overlapping area inviting mutually beneficial research and business partnerships.

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Singapore has recently been negotiating and concluding multifaceted and multi-layered Economic Co-operation partnerships in the region. This is an innovative response to the realities of the new age and the new economy. Such bilateral and regional initiatives are changing the commercial landscape in South East and East Asia. I believe that India should seek to mirror and partner such growth opportunities in our eastern neighbourhood. Apart from economic co-operation, there is much more that the two countries can work for together. We have to confront terrorism, which neither respects power, nor heeds size. Even Singapore’s disciplined and orderly society discovered this recently. We have crucial stakes in protecting our common commercial sea-lanes, combating piracy, choking off narco-trade and curbing gunrunning. We need to tackle this jointly in a determined manner, through regular exchange of experiences, information and intelligence. Moving on to a wider Southeast Asian canvas, India’s close civilizational links with the region go back over a millennium. Historically, we have been linked by culture and commerce. India, China and regional maritime centres like Singapore played leading roles in the flourishing trade of Asia — shaping the historical development of this region. The cross-fertilization of human experiences and the spiritual interaction between India and East Asia has left an indelible mark on the regional art, architecture, language and culture. It is a fundamental fact of geography that India is in the immediate neighbourhood of ASEAN. We share land and maritime borders with Myanmar, Indonesia, and Thailand. India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal are closer to some ASEAN states than to the Indian mainland. The vital commercial sea-lanes between West Asia and Southeast Asia straddle the Indian mainland and its island terrorities.

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We are conscious that in the first few decades after our independence, we did not attain the full promise of our relationship. This was not a reflection of a lower priority. It was a consequence of the divergences in economic ideology, political outlook and security assumptions much of which the Cold War imposed on us. Fortunately, we have emerged from this strait-jacket. The end of the Cold War removed the hurdles to closer IndiaASEAN co-operation. India became a sectoral dialogue partner of ASEAN in 1992, full dialogue partner in 1995, and joined the ASEAN Regional Forum in 1996. Our Dialogue Partnership has been active. We have always sought to integrate India’s strengths in various social, scientific, and economic sectors into the relevant ASEAN processes. Reflective of India’s interest in intensifying its engagement with ASEAN, we are in the process of jointly developing an India-ASEAN Vision 2020, as a roadmap to our mutually desired objectives. The countries in our region are today at the forefront of developing and introducing cutting edge technologies into their economies. We are in the very epicentre of the Knowledge Revolution. This provides us with a major opportunity to overcome our historical disabilities and to compress the time gap between successive levels of development. Each of our countries has achieved expertise and even dominance in certain areas of technology. It is crucial that we should co-operate in exploiting the synergies between us, rather than duplicating capacities or undercutting each other. A link-up between complementary IT capabilities is only one example. There should be many other possibilities, which we need to explore. The current global economic slow-down should also exhort us to more actively explore avenues for generating and meeting demand on a regional basis, so that we are cushioned against the impact of saturation of external markets. The move towards greater economic

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liberalization in the ASEAN Free Trade Area and the ASEAN Investment Area reflects this recognition. India seeks a mutually beneficial partnership in this endeavour. It is to promote such creative interlinkages that we believe a multilateral dialogue at the Summit level can be very effective. India looks forward to the India-ASEAN Summit with this perspective. We value Singapore’s identity of views with us on this and deeply appreciate its energetic espousal of the India-ASEAN dialogue. We recognize the pragmatic logic of pursuing specific socioeconomic goals in the region through subregional groupings. We therefore strongly support Mekong Ganga Co-operation, bringing together Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and India. We are also committed to the Initiative for ASEAN Integration specifically aimed at the four new entrants into ASEAN. We have offered our assistance to the Initiative in the development of a communications network involving highways, railways, river navigation and port facilities. We have launched another subregional initiative for a road link between India, Myanmar and Thailand, which would eventually become part of an elaborate regional communications network. It is important to recognize manifest political and economic realities, when we try to tackle the crucial issues of growth and security. As home to 1 billion people, India has to be integral to any regional process pertaining to the Asia Pacific. We have a constructive and multi-faceted relationship with every major country of the region. This is also true of India’s relations with ASEAN’s East Asian neighbours. With China we are engaged in an expanding relationship to mutual benefit. With Japan we have agreed to launch a Global Partnership into the 21st century. The Republic of Korea is a valued trade and investment partner. Our strategic partnership with

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Russia continues strong and vibrant. Our engagement with the United States now covers a wide range of bilateral and international issues of mutual concern. The Indian economy is now rapidly integrating into the global mainstream. Our linkages with the major economies of the Asia Pacific are becoming stronger. I believe that this coming together would reinforce development, peace, security and stability in this region. India’s belonging to the Asia-Pacific community is a geographical fact and a political reality. It does not require formal membership of any regional organization for its recognition or sustenance. India and ASEAN are now poised to intensify their political and security dialogue to add a new dimension to a mutually beneficial economic and commercial relationship. We grapple with a bewildering array of security threats, of which international terrorism has recently thrust itself dramatically into our consciousness. It has become crystal clear to the international community that terrorism can be tackled and curbed only with a global and comprehensive approach. But the nature of our Global Village has made it necessary to tackle even non-military threats to security in a comprehensive manner. Poverty and shortages of food and energy threaten the stability of societies. Population growth, the rapid spread of diseases like TB and AIDS, environmental degradation and cyber crime are all factors of deep concern. Endemic threats from sea-piracy, transnational crime and narcotics also continue to stalk our region. Let us also remember that Asia has 7 of the 10 most populous countries of the world; the largest standing armies; four declared nuclear weapon states; and several missile producing and exporting states. The civilization and political diversity of the continent provides additional volatility. On one hand, it has been estimated that in the next 25 years, Asia will account for 57% of world GDP.

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On the other hand, the economic problems which first surfaced in 1997 have tended to recur. The management of the unpredictable behaviour of this economy is also a problem with security implications. There can be no effective solution to these problems within national boundaries. They have to be tackled through a co-operative approach, holistically and regionally. But unlike other continents with formal politico-security co-operation frameworks like OSCE, OAS and OAU, Asia does not as yet have a comprehensive security framework. Such a co-operative security framework is today gradually evolving and developing in the Asia Pacific. The ASEAN Regional Forum, with Southeast Asia at its nucleus, is developing into a unique platform for security dialogue. The trends of the last decade indicate that this new century will be dominated by the power of technology and a globalized economic system. It is inevitable that the global socio-economic centre of gravity should shift to Asia. The Asia-Pacific region has to respond creatively to absorb this change through a web of co-operative arrangements, which would promote this transition in a stable manner. Ethno-nationalist violence and terrorism fed by extremism are one set of impeding factors, which need to be suppressed and eradicated. Multicultural and pluralist democracies are the most vulnerable to these ills, precisely because terrorists exploit the freedoms which their societies guarantee to the people. It is not surprising that terrorism is supported and sponsored only by undemocratic societies and totalitarian regimes. But because democracies represent the will and determination of their peoples, they have the internal strength and resilience to resist and overcome the scourge of terrorism.

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Widening income disparities in the modern incarnation of the digital divide pose the other daunting challenge. Again, it is the democratic processes which can find the internal development responses to the inequities which globalization tends to accentuate in the short term. If, therefore, the 21st century is to be the century of Asia, it devolves upon the democracies of our region to take the lead in making it happen.

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III Closing Remarks Chia Siow Yue

Mr Lee Hsien Loong, Chairman, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance; Your Excellency Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India; Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong; Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies is honoured and privileged to have Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee deliver the 21st Singapore Lecture on the theme “India’s Perspectives on ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific Region”. The Lecture was originally scheduled for a much earlier date but had to be postponed twice because of unforeseen events which led to the Prime Minister postponing his state visit to Singapore. Over seven years ago, in September 1994, ISEAS had the honour of organizing a similar Singapore Lecture for the then Prime Minister, Mr Narasimha Rao, who spoke on the theme “India and the Asia-Pacific: Forging a New Relationship”. India is the world’s largest democracy and second most populous state. On the latter, India’s population is projected to outstrip that of China within the next two decades. In nominal GNP terms, India ranks as the eleventh largest economy in the world, but in terms of purchasing power parity, India is already the fourth largest economy in the world after the United States, China and Japan. India is ASEAN’s biggest neighbour on the west. Today, Prime Minister Vajpayee has spoken on India’s past, present and future

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relations with Singapore and ASEAN. Singapore and India share many common interests and have complementary economies. Likewise, ASEAN and India share many common interests and there are immense opportunities for co-operation in economics and in various aspects of comprehensive and human security. India’s “Look East” policy is much welcomed by both Singapore and ASEAN as this region seeks to develop cross-regional ties to complement the rising tide of globalization. Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. It is now my very pleasant task to ask all of you to join me in thanking Prime Minister Vajpayee for the unique honour and opportunity of listening to him in person.

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ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE Atal Bihari Vajpayee became Prime Minister of India for a second consecutive term at the head of a new coalition government, the National Democratic Alliance, on 13 October 1999. An inspiring leader, he is the only Prime Minister since Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to have won three mandates. Born into the family of a humble schoolteacher on 25 December 1924, his rise in public life is a tribute to both his political acumen and Indian democracy. However, his road to success has been both long and arduous, marked by selfless dedication to the nation and total commitment to the welfare of the masses. A veteran Parlimentarian whose political career stretches over more than four decades, his first brush with nationalist politics was during his student days when he joined the Quit India Movement of 1942 that hastened the end of British colonial rule. Since then, Mr Vajpayee has been elected to the Lok Sabha (House of the People) nine times and to the Rajya Sabha (House of the States) twice, a record in itself. As India’s Foreign Minister (1977–79), chairperson of various important Standing Committees of Parliament, and Leader of the Opposition, he has been an active participant in the shaping of India’s post-independence domestic and foreign policy. Mr Vajpayee’s diplomatic finesse was reflected in his unique gesture of a bus journey to Pakistan in 1999 in search of subcontinental peace. His diplomacy also helped India to steer through the international hue and cry that followed the nuclear tests in 1998, and to emerge as a responsible nuclear power. Under his leadership, the Indian economy has shown steady progress, and holds out promise of remarkable growth in the coming years. The second generation economic reforms introduced by his government have made the economy more competitive and investor-friendly. He has emerged as a leader who commands respect for his liberal worldview and commitment to democratic ideals and an open society. He is also an ardent champion of women’s empowerment and social equity. Mr Vajpayee has been conferred India’s second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, in recognition of his selfless dedication to India and his more than half-a-century of service to society and the nation. In 1994, he was named India’s Best Parliamentarian. He is also an acclaimed poet and author of several books, as well as a gourmet cook.

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THE SINGAPORE LECTURE SERIES Inaugural Singapore Lecture 14 October 1980 The Invisible Hand in Economics and Politics by MILTON FRIEDMAN

2nd Singapore Lecture 30 October 1981 American Foreign Policy: A Global View by HENRY KISSINGER

3rd Singapore Lecture 2 December 1982 Peace and East-West Relations by GISCARD D’ESTAING

4th Singapore Lecture 10 November 1983 The Soviet Union: Challenges and Responses as Seen from the European Point of View by HELMUT SCHMIDT

5th Singapore Lecture 8 November 1984 The Western Alliance: Its Future and Its Implications for Asia by JOSEPH M.A.H. LUNS

6th Singapore Lecture 5 December 1985 Deficits, Debts, and Demographics: Three Fundamentals Affecting Our Long-Term Economic Future by PETER G. PETERSON

17 7th Singapore Lecture 25 November 1986 Trends in the International Financial System by RAYMOND BARRE

8th Singapore Lecture 27 November 1987 The Challenge of Change in the Asia-Pacific Region by BOB HAWKE

9th Singapore Lecture 14 December 1988 Regionalism, Globalism and Spheres of Influence: ASEAN and the Challenge of Change into the 21st Century by MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD

10th Singapore Lecture 15 October 1989 Trade Outlook: Globalization or Regionalization by BRIAN MULRONEY

11th Singapore Lecture 3 April 1991 International Economic Developments by R.F.M. LUBBERS

12th Singapore Lecture 4 January 1992 U.S. Policy in the Asia-Pacific Region: Meeting the Challenges of the Post Cold-War Era by GEORGE BUSH

18 13th Singapore Lecture 8 September 1994 India and the Asia-Pacific: Forging a New Relationship by P.V. NARASIMHA RAO

14th Singapore Lecture 17 January 1996 Australia, Asia and the New Regionalism by PAUL KEATING

15th Singapore Lecture 14 January 1997 Reforms for the New Era of Japan and ASEAN: For a Broader and Deeper Partnership by RYUTARO HASHIMOTO

16th Singapore Lecture 6 March 1997 South and Southern Africa into the Next Century by NELSON R. MANDELA

17th Singapore Lecture 30 November 1999 China and Asia in the New Century by ZHU RONGJI

18th Singapore Lecture 14 February 2000 Global Values: The United Nations and the Rule of Law in the 21st Century by KOFI A. ANNAN

19 19th Singapore Lecture 27 November 2000 Peace on the Korean Peninsula and East Asia by KIM DAE-JUNG

20th Singapore Lecture 14 January 2002 Japan and ASEAN in East Asia: A Sincere and Open Partnership by JUNICHIRO KOIZUMI

21st Singapore Lecture 9 April 2002 India’s Perspectives on ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific Region by ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE