INDIA DEFENCE CONSULTANTS
|
WHAT'S HOT? –– ANALYSIS OF RECENT HAPPENINGS
|
INDIA'S WEALTH AND CLOUT ARE
GROWING An IDC Analysis |
New
Delhi, 24 November 2004 The ASEAN summit is due to be held
later this year and a visionary document and a plan
of action between ASEAN and India will be signed in
Vientiane. This is expected to boost the current
ASEAN–India trade now at US$13 billion to US$30
billion by 2007. We append a statement but first a
preamble. Indian businessmen are showing off
their wealth. Manikchand of Gutka fame buys his
daughter a Maybach Mercedes for her birthday (cost
Rs 5.5 crores), Mittals and Amar Singh glitter, 12
Giraffes and Zulu dancers for Gulshan Kumar's
daughter's wedding in Amritsar and this shows
confidence of wealth. Indian leaders also now
confidently voice opinions on the regional security
issues as a regional power, and PM Manmohan Singh
visited Kashmir in mid November and announced
immediate troop reduction of a Division strength
(9000), though not in Siachen. This shows
confidence. Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia
want the Indian Navy to jointly patrol their waters
especially the Malacca Straits and others watch
Indiia’s growing clout. Singapore is pragmatic.
The Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home
Minister Shivraj Patil have also conceded that
infiltration from Pakistan had subsided, thanks to
734 km of fencing being completed by the Indian Army
Engineers under OP Deewaar (Wall), use of Danish
Hyderma 910 mine clearance machines, imported and
local warning devices and aggressive operations. The Chairman Chief’s of Staff
Committee ACM S Krishnaswamy also down played
Pakistan’s Air Force capabilities and while
delivering the prestigious IDSA National Security
Lecture in Delhi on 11 Nov went on to state that a
war with Pakistan was neither desirable nor feasible
under the new conditions in the world, but India
would keep its powder dry and ready. Krishnaswamy
recently visited Chile and Myanmar and when
questioned as to why India was placating
undemocratic regimes, his answer was there are
various forms of democracy, but India has to look to
defence exports and new opportunities. India also
sees Iran which has asked for Super Fledermaus radar
from BEL and other assistance, in the light that
India is on a growth path and in exchange India
desires its gas and oil supplies along with uranium
in the long term. USA may frown on this but national
interests always should come first. The Defence Minister speaking to
the Navy Foundation also stressed the need for
defence exports and to increase the limit of 26%
Foreign Direct Investment allowed to foreign firms
and other incentives. HAL announced the impending
dispatch of one ALH Dhruv helicopter as export to
Israel and other orders in the pipeline. There is a
mood in India to globalise in the defence sector
too. Now the Asean summit comes as a
boost and all nations except Bangladesh are
cooperating with India. Pakistan will soon realise
cooperation is better than confrontation and in any
case the LOC is fenced by the Army Engineers so it
is the de facto International Border, as the world
sees it and will support. PM Shaukat Aziz arrives on
23 November and now we learn that President
Musharraf's plan for Kashmir on ethnic lines that K
Subhramanyam supported in TOI on 22 November was
only for Pakistan's internal consumption!
The ASEAN Summit: Continuing The Dynamism By Ong Keng Yong ASEAN Secretary General, Jakarta 22 November 2004 The Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) will end the year 2004 on a high
note. A record number of about 20 major agreements
and declarations are expected to be signed or
adopted either by the ASEAN member countries or
between ASEAN and its partners in the Lao capital of
Vientiane next week. This is the culmination of
year-long consultations, negotiations and
consensus-building that demonstrates ASEAN's
continued dynamism and relevance. The 10th ASEAN Summit and related
meetings in Vientiane will take up issues ranging
from setting strategic directions to adopting
follow-up cooperative activities and discussing
results of commissioned studies by experts. The
subjects cover the spheres of peace and security,
economic integration (in particular, the priority
integration of eleven selected sectors in ASEAN) and
socio-cultural development. The event will have
something for everybody: those in the public sector,
private sector and the civil society. The Vientiane Summit is a vote of
confidence in Laos' ability to undertake its
responsibilities in steering ASEAN this year.
Hosting the ASEAN summit and its related meetings
for the first time, Laos will have an opportunity to
focus the regional media's attention on the country.
The summit in Vientiane will see in
action freshly mandated heads of state/government
from Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines
and Singapore. The good group chemistry of their
predecessors and the other ASEAN Leaders had a most
positive effect on ASEAN summit diplomacy, bringing
out the best of the diversity in Southeast Asia. There will be a keen interest to
see a replication of such constructive group
dynamics. The new Prime Minister of Myanmar is
likely to be the most watched as he updates his
counterparts on the situation in his country since
his predecessor obtained ASEAN Leaders' support of a
roadmap for national reconciliation at the last
ASEAN Summit in Bali in October 2003. The ASEAN Leaders are expected to
adopt the six-year Vientiane Action Program (VAP) to
continue the implementation of the goals laid down
in the ASEAN Vision 2020 and the Bali Concord II.
The VAP incorporates, among other things, ASEAN's
specific commitments to establish the ASEAN
Community, including the plans of action on the
ASEAN Economic Community, the ASEAN Security
Community and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community. These commitments for
community-building are also designed to narrow the
development gap among the ASEAN Member Countries.
The VAP serves as a cross-sectoral and inter-facing
instrument to tie in the various practical actions
for the period 2004 to 2010. Australia and New Zealand In addition to the annual ASEAN
Plus Three (China, Japan and the Republic of Korea)
and ASEAN-India summitry, this year will also see
ASEAN leaders meeting their counterparts from
neighbouring Australia and New Zealand.
Commemorating three decades of cooperative
relations, the leaders of ASEAN, Australia and New
Zealand are expected to elevate the current economic
relationship under the AFTA-CER Closer Economic
Partnership to a higher level by launching
negotiations on establishing an ASEAN, Australia and
New Zealand Free Trade Area within 10 years. Drawing alongside the closer
economic arrangements that China, Japan and India
have each entered with ASEAN in the past two years,
the Republic of Korea, this time, will sign with
ASEAN a Joint Declaration on Comprehensive
Cooperation Partnership. The Declaration will
mandate the establishment of an ASEAN-RoK Free Trade
Area (AKFTA) to be realized within ten years or
earlier. The AKFTA will involve progressive
elimination of all forms of barriers to trade in
goods, services and investment. ASEAN and the South
Korea are the 5th largest trading partners for each
other and ASEAN is the third largest destination of
FDI from the South Korea. ASEAN and China will carry forward
the process laid down in the 2002 Framework
Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation by
entering into agreements on trade in goods and on
dispute settlement mechanisms. The two-way trade
between ASEAN and China in 2003 was close to US$79
billion. For 2004, the booming economy of China and
the higher than expected GDP growth in ASEAN will
mean a bilateral trade of nearly US$100 billion.
Thus, the target of US$100 billion for ASEAN-China
trade by 2005 is within easy reach. Cognizant that international
terrorism remains a threat to peace and security in
the region, ASEAN and Japan are expected to launch
cooperation to counter international terrorism
through information exchange, intelligence sharing
and capacity-building. Both sides will designate
national focal points to coordinate the
implementation of the proposed Joint Declaration. At the same time, the ASEAN-Japan
Summit will review the progress of implementation of
the closer economic partnership framework, which was
launched in 2003, particularly on the consultations
towards the liberalization of trade in goods,
services, and investment. An innovative and significantly
symbolic event is the ASEAN-India Car Rally from
India's northeast Guwahati City to the Indonesian
island of Batam. The Rally will be flagged off by
the Indian Prime Minister one week before the summit
and the cars will be in Vientiane in time for the
ASEAN-India Summit on Nov. 30. From India, the car rally will
traverse Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia,
Malaysia, Singapore and will end in Batam. The car
rally will underline the geographic contiguity
between India and Southeast Asia and bring home a
point that ASEAN and India are connected and
accessible through land transport. A visionary document and a plan of
action between ASEAN and India will be signed in
Vientiane. This is expected to boost the current
ASEAN-India trade of US$13 billion to US$30 billion
by 2007. Treaty The foreign minister of Russia will
travel to Vientiane to sign an instrument of
accession to ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation
in Southeast Asia. Russia will be the sixth country
outside of Southeast Asia -- after Papua New Guinea,
China, India, Japan and Pakistan - to adhere to the
purposes and principles of the Treaty, which
prescribes a code of conduct in inter-state
relations and a process of pacific settlement of
disputes in Southeast Asia. The Republic of Korea is
also expected to accede to the Treaty at the
Vientiane Summit. There is no doubt that the ten
diverse ASEAN Member Countries and a similar number
of dialogue partners make ASEAN community-building
and international relations a complex undertaking.
Yet, there is an audacious enterprise among ASEAN
and its partners to get great value from such a
configuration. ASEAN has remained focused on
consolidating economic integration, maintaining
inter-state peace and stability and promoting human
security and development. ASEAN has positioned
itself strategically as the hub of future-oriented
regional dialogue and cooperation in the
Asia-Pacific. ASEAN is determined to share its
dynamism and optimism for the future with those who
believe in prospering together. The author is the ASEAN Secretary General in Jakarta. The views expressed are personal. |