Round Table Discussion with Professor Kishore Mahbubani , Dean LKY School, Singapore, at the IIC Annexe. (Lecture Hall II, Basement.), New Delhi, on Feb 5, 2014 at 4 PM

SPS-IIC invite you to a Round Table Discussion (RTD) on

India’s Look East Policy : A View From Singapore

led by Professor Kishore Mahbubani , Dean LKY School, Singapore

Venue: IIC Annexe. (Lecture Hall II, Basement.)

Chair : Ambassador Shyam Saran, Chairman, NSAB

RSVP: Aniket Bhavthankar – aniketb@spsindia.in

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    RT Discussion with Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani

    The Society for Policy Studies (SPS), in collaboration with the India International Centre (IIC), organized a Round Table Discussion on India’s Look East Policy: A View from Singapore led by Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani, Dean, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, on February 05, 2014. Ambassador Shyam Saran chaired the session.

    Ambassador Mahbubani, who served for 33 years in Singapore’s diplomatic service and was also Singapore’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations, remarked that he has personally witnessed the swings in the India-ASEAN relations. He divided India-ASEAN relations into three phases.
    In the first phase, India and ASEAN were standing on opposite sides. Hence, that phase is characterized as “uncomfortable”. Despite this, there was warmth in bilateral relations between India and ASEAN countries.

    End of Cold War and opening of the Indian economy provided a much needed impetus for India and ASEAN relations. This was the start of second phase in their relations. Singapore played a great role in bringing India and ASEAN together. It is a strange paradox, Singapore, with a large Chinese diaspora, threw its weight behind stronger India and ASEAN relations. Singapore backed India’s entry into ASEAN Regional Forum. During this period, both ASEAN and India have understood the relevance of strong relations and started to work on it. Mahbubani candidly said the democratic set-up in India may have proved disadvantageous (as compared to China) and often slows down the decision making process.

    Geopolitical competition between the US and China in South-East Asia has marked the emergence of third phase between India and ASEAN relations. Dispute in the South China Sea has increased cleavage among China, Japan, US and ASEAN countries. In 2012, ASEAN countries even failed to issue a joint communiqué and this was a wakeup call for ASEAN countries.

    To that end he stressed the fact that within the ASEAN bloc members had independent foreign policy objectives and orientation. He said that if one was to place the ASEAN counties on the basis of their affinity for China, then Cambodia would be at one end of the spectrum and Vietnam the other. Geopolitical competition between the US and China in South East Asia has raised internal tensions within the bloc.
    In this context, India and ASEAN relations may face lot of challenges and opportunities. ASEAN as a region of 600 million people is emerging as the growth centre of the world and it is imperative that India to seize this opportunity to further its relations with the region. At the same time India needs to balance its relation with regard to the ASEAN, China, Japan and US.

    Ambassador Mahbubani asserted that, India should step up its activities in South East Asia as China figures far higher in the ASEAN’s foreign policy and strategic calculus than India did. He said India had greater potential leverages in the ASEAN than China because of its large diaspora and commonality of the “cultural bedrock”. He said India should not make Japan the “lynchpin” of its relations with Asia as Japan was a ‘declining power” in every respect – economically, militarily and even in its population that was projected to come down from the present 127 mn to 67 mn by 2100.

    He regretted that ASEAN does not enjoy priority status in Indian foreign policy orientation, although this contention was contested by Indian speakers, particularly former diplomats, in the audience. It is in the long term national interest of India to move ASEAN “up its foreign policy ladder”.

    The Q&A session that followed the lecture centred on two key aspects: one, what more could India do to enhance its relations with ASEAN and two, Indo-Japanese relations were important for India in the near and mid-term despite Japan being considered as a declining power on basis of certain metrics.
    Ambassador Mahbubani opined that India needs to take lessons from the indicators of the China-ASEAN relations, not to play catch up but to refine its approach on the basis of its strengths. As regards Indo-Japanese relations he conceded to their relevance but stressed that importance of ASEAN for India in the long term.

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