ASEAN-India Relations - UPSC

What Is The Association of Southeast Asian Nations

It is a regional grouping that promotes economic, political, and security cooperation.

It was established in August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the founding fathers of ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Its chairmanship rotates annually, based on the alphabetical order of the English names of Member States.

ASEAN countries have a total population of 650 million people and a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD 2.8 trillion.

Members

ASEAN brings together ten Southeast Asian states – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – into one organisation.

How Has Been the ASEAN-India Relations

The ASEAN-India dialogue relations started with the establishment of a sectoral partnership in 1992.

This graduated to full dialogue partnership in December 1995 and summit-level partnership in 2002.

Traditionally the basis of India-ASEAN ties has been trade and people-to-people ties due to shared historical and cultural roots, a more recent and urgent area of convergence has been balancing China’s rise.

Both India and ASEAN aim to establish a rules-based security architecture for peaceful development in the region, in contrast to China’s aggressive policies.

Areas of Cooperation

Economic Cooperation

ASEAN is India’s 4th largest trading partner.

India signed FTA (Free Trade Agreement) in goods in 2009 and an FTA in services and investments in 2014 with ASEAN.

Since the FTA came into effect, the trade between them has almost doubled to reach over USD 87 billion in 2019-20 and then declined to USD 79 billion in 2020-21 due to pandemic-driven slowdown.

India has a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) with various countries of the ASEAN region which has resulted in concessional trade and a rise in investments.

Commodity trade between India and ASEAN region has reached USD 98.39 billion in the period April 2021- February 2022.

India’s main trading ties are with Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand.

Financial Assistance

India provides financial assistance to the ASEAN Nations through various mechanism like ASEAN-India Cooperation Fund, ASEAN-India S&T Development Fund and ASEAN-India Green Fund.

Connectivity

India has been undertaking several connectivity projects like India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral (IMT) Highway and the Kaladan Multimodal Project.

India is also trying to establish a Maritime Transportation Agreement with ASEAN and also Plans for a Railway link between New Delhi in India to Hanoi in Vietnam.

Socio-Cultural Cooperation

Programmes to boost People-to-People Interaction with ASEAN are organized, such as inviting ASEAN students to India, Special Training Course for ASEAN diplomats, Exchange of Parliamentarians, etc.

Defence Cooperation

Joint Naval and Military exercises are conducted between India and most ASEAN countries.

The maiden Asean-India Maritime Exercise will be held in 2023.

Watershed’ Military Exercise held in 2016.

Vietnam has traditionally been a close friend on defense issues, Singapore is also an equally important partner.

What Is The Significance of ASEAN For India

India needs a close diplomatic relationship with ASEAN nations both for economic and security reasons.

Connectivity with the ASEAN nations can allow India to improve its presence in the region.

These connectivity projects keep Northeast India at the centre, ensuring the economic growth of the northeastern states.

Improved trade ties with the ASEAN nations would mean a counter to China’s presence in the region and economic growth and development for India.