{"id":31771,"date":"2018-10-29T11:09:28","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T05:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=31771"},"modified":"2018-10-29T11:09:28","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T05:39:28","slug":"the-arc-to-southeast-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-arc-to-southeast-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"The arc to Southeast Asia\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/the-arc-to-southeast-asia\/article22515403.ece\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The arc to Southeast Asia<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India will host heads of 10 nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the Republic Day celebrations to boost India\u2019s ties with Southeast Asia. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Where does India lack to strengthen the India-ASEAN relationship?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s capacity to provide <\/span><b>development assistance, market access and security guarantees remains limited<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also ASEAN\u2019s inclination to harness New Delhi for regional stability remains <\/span><b>restricted by its sensitivities to other powers.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There has been a <\/span><b>shift in emphasis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with India moving away from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and asserting its centrality in the evolving geography of the Indo-Pacific.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s <\/span><b>economic focus too is not in tune with other regional powers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which view ASEAN as an important market for exports and investments.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> India\u2019s <\/span><b>export sector remains weak<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the government\u2019s focus has shifted to boosting manufacturing domestically.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As India\u2019s gaze shifts to the Bay of Bengal, <\/span><b>Myanmar and Thailand have emerged as key players in its southeastern outreach<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hope is to use these nations as a bridge to ASEAN.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The temptation to prioritise these countries over others in ASEAN may also prevent others from looking at India as a regional stakeholder.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is the way forward?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is important for India and ASEAN to <\/span><b>chart out a more operational, though modest, agenda for future cooperation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The three Cs of <\/span><b>commerce, connectivity and culture<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have been highlighted but a more <\/span><b>coarse perspective <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is needed in terms of a forging a forward-looking approach.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> India as a facilitator of the ASEAN-wide digital economy would not only <\/span><b>challenge China but also emerge as an economic guarantor of its own.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India needs to focus on <\/span><b>more effective delivery of projects<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> it is already committed to.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this context, prompt completion of the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway, which will run from Moreh in Manipur to Mae Sot in Thailand via Myanmar, is key.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With China having three times more commercial flights than India to Southeast Asia, improving <\/span><b>air connectivity between India and ASEAN countries<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> should also be high on the agenda.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While India offers scholarships to students from ASEAN states to study at Nalanda University, this initiative should be <\/span><b>extended to the IITs and the IIMs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Tourism too can be further encouraged<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> between India and the ASEAN with some creative branding by the two sides<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The arc to Southeast Asia\u00a0 Context: India will host heads of 10 nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the Republic Day celebrations to boost India\u2019s ties with Southeast Asia. Where does India lack to strengthen the India-ASEAN relationship? India\u2019s capacity to provide development assistance, market access and security guarantees remains limited.&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-arc-to-southeast-asia\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The arc to Southeast Asia\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704664556},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31771\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}