Modi leaves for Philippines to attend ASEAN Summit

Modi leaves for Philippines to attend ASEAN Summit

Context

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday left for the Philippines, where he will participate in various bilateral and multilateral programmes, including the much-awaited Indian – ASEAN summit.

What does the summit mean to India?

• The India-ASEAN Summit symbolizes India’s commitment to deepen its ties with the ASEAN member states and the Indo-Pacific region as part of the ‘Act East Policy’.
• The 10-member grouping ASEAN and India comprise a total population of 1.85 billion people which is one-fourth of the global population. The combined GDP has been estimated at over 3.8 trillion dollars.

What else is on the list?

• Apart from participating in the ASEAN-India and East Asia Summits, in the three-day visit, Mr. Modi would also take part in special celebrations of the 50th anniversary of ASEAN, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Leaders’ Meeting and ASEAN Business and Investment Summit.
• The bilateral meeting with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte with PM Modi and interactions with other ASEAN and East Asia Summit Leaders is also on the cards.

ASEAN

• The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) comprises of Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam.
• India’s relationship with ASEAN is an outcome of the significant changes in the world’s political and economic scenario since the early 1990s.
• ‘Look East Policy’ is India’s research for economic space.
• The Look East Policy has today turned into a dynamic and action oriented ‘Act East Policy.
• PM at the 12th ASEAN India Summit and the 9th East Asia Summit held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, in November, 2014, formally enunciated the Act East Policy.
• India’s relationship with ASEAN is a key pillar of our foreign policy and the foundation of our Act East Policy.
• The up-gradation of the relationship into a Strategic Partnership in 2012 was a natural progression to the ground covered since India became a Sectoral Partner of the ASEAN in 1992, Dialogue Partner in 1996 and Summit Level Partner in 2002.

Security cooperation

• The main forum for ASEAN security dialogue is the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
• India has been attending annual meetings of this forum since 1996 and has actively participated in its various activities.
• The ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) is the highest defence consultative and cooperative mechanism in ASEAN.
• The ADMM+ brings together Defence Ministers from the 10 ASEAN nations plus Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia, and the United States on a biannual basis.

Trade and Investment

• India-ASEAN trade and investment relations have been growing steadily, with ASEAN being India’s fourth largest trading partner.
• The annual trade between India and ASEAN stood at approximately US$ 76.53 billion in 2014-15.
• It declined to US$ 65.04 billion in 2015-16 essentially due to declining commodity prices amidst a general slowing down of the global economy.
• Investment flows are also substantial both ways, with ASEAN accounting for approximately 12.5% of investment flows into India since 2000.
• The ASEAN-India Free Trade Area has been completed with the entering into force of the ASEAN-India Agreements on Trade in Service and Investments on 1 July 2015.
• ASEAN and India have been also working on enhancing private sector engagement.
• ASEAN India-Business Council (AIBC) was set up in March 2003 in Kuala Lumpur as a forum to bring key private sector players from India and the ASEAN countries on a single platform for business networking and sharing of ideas.

Convergence

• Economic ties between India and Southeast Asia are, for reasons of history, orientation and policy, today still rather thin.
• There seems to be a trend of convergence between the economic orientations and policies of India and Southeast Asia, as it within ASEAN itself.
• Free global trade and globalization are the common grounds between ASEAN and India.
• There is also a trend toward a common appreciation that states and corporations have to ensure that their people are adequately educated and trained and physically fit for the inflexibilities of global competition in the information age, having an inherent right, in any case, to education and health care.
• There seems to be enough common ground between ASEAN and India for them to forge ahead in cultivating the environment for expanding and deepening the trade, investments and capital flows between them.

Current relations

• The year 2017 also completes 15 years of India-ASEAN dialogue at the summit.
• 2017 also commemorates the completion of five years of strategic partnership between Asia’s third-largest economy and one of the most successful economic groupings in the world.
• India’s bid to accentuate its links with ASEAN comes at a time of flux in the region with China seen as growing more assertive vis-a-vis its territorial claims in the oil and gas-rich South China Sea, which is also a major international maritime trade route.

What needs to be done?

• India is yet to give a signal that its remains committed to a long-term strategic presence in the region.
• Economically, India needs to develop connectivity with the region so that economic complementarities can be fully realized.
• Militarily, India needs to evolve into a robust security provider in the region.
• Diplomatically, it needs a sustained outreach.
• Culturally, it needs to build on the shared cultural linkages.