English
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s whistle-stop tour through Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) that began in Indonesia (May 30) followed by a pit-stop Malaysia and then Singapore (June 1) reiterated the centrality of the maritime domain in India’s ambitious Look/Act East Policy that began in the Narasimha Rao years.
To his credit, Modi has brought his personal vigour to matters maritime and since assuming office has introduced and advocated the concept of Sagar (security and growth for all in the region) —the Indian Ocean region, which has now been expanded to the Indo-Pacific continuum — the wide oceanic swathe that encompasses the Indian Ocean littoral from the east coast of Africa to the western Pacific ocean that laps the east Asian coastline.
Modi’s Indonesia visit was the most substantive by way of outlining the scope of the bilateral relationship with the largest Asean nation and locating this within the larger geo-political construct of the India-Asean framework. Asean conceived in 1967 as an anti-communist bloc during the Cold War, comprises 10 nations. The original five (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Singapore) were later joined by Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar. Currently its combined GDP ($2.8 trillion) is greater than that of India, which reiterates the centrality of this cluster of nations for India — a theme that Modi persuasively expanded upon during his visit.
