Dr. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Director of the Institute of Security and International Studies,

Faculty and Students,

Distinguished Guests,

It gives me great pleasure to be here today to address this distinguished and knowledgeable gathering on "India's Look East Policy and its implications for Thailand and South East Asia". I am particularly happy to be doing so during the 60th Anniversary year of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Thailand. The Anniversary is, indeed, an opportune moment to share with each other our respective priorities and plans for the future. By doing so, I believe, we can craft a shared vision that would form the basis for cooperative action leading to progress and stability for the entire region.

I would, at the outset, like to congratulate the Institute for Security and International Studies for their work in conducting independent research and disseminating knowledge on international issues. I am also happy that issues relating to this region and to Asia are of priority for the Institute. This is particularly important as our countries have too often in the past looked at each other through the eyes of others. As the 21st century begins and as Asian nations rise to take their proper place at the table of global affairs, we need a better understanding of each other, both at the level of states and of civil society. I, therefore, commend the ISIS for the work that they are doing to foster closer understanding in the region.

I would, at the beginning, also like to say a few words about India and Thailand. Our two countries are no strangers to each other. The architecture, sculpture and mythology of both countries reflect our shared cultural and civilizational linkages. India and Thailand are also maritime neighbours. It is, perhaps, not so well known that India's Andaman & Nicobar Islands are much closer to Thailand's coast than to the Indian mainland. History and geography make our two countries natural partners and it, therefore, follows that Thailand occupies a central place in India's "Look East" policy.

I have chosen to speak on this topic for a number of reasons. As many of you would be aware, India has undergone significant changes over the last decade and a half. During the same period, the international order has seen a profound structural transformation. Consequently, the foreign policy of India has had to re-formulate its priorities.

When our "Look East" policy was initiated in 1991, it marked a strategic shift in our perspective of the world. It coincided with the beginning of our economic reform process and provided an opportunity for significantly enlarging our economic engagement. At the same time, it also encouraged a renewal of linkages with our civilizational neighbours in South East and East Asia.

From sectoral dialogue partners in 1992, we became full dialogue partners in 1996 and, since 2002, we have annual Summits with ASEAN. India-ASEAN cooperation now covers a wide field, including trade and investment, science & technology, tourism, human resource development, transportation & infrastructure and health & pharmaceuticals. At the Third India-ASEAN Summit held in Vientiane in November 2004, we signed the "India-ASEAN Partnership for Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity". The document contained a Plan of Action providing for enhanced political, economic, social and cultural cooperation, which is being implemented in a phased manner. In October 2003, India also signed the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation.

A significant aspect of the cooperation, both bilateral and through multilateral institutions like the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), has been the growing collaboration on security issues fostered through dialogue and practical measures as well as through the establishment of legal frameworks. This cooperation has focused on many areas, notably maritime security and counter-terrorism, which are of vital interest to the security of States as well as commerce through the sea-lanes of communication in this region. On maritime security especially, India has entered into bilateral arrangements, including MoUs signed with Thailand and Indonesia, for joint coordinated patrols by the Navies of India, Indonesia and Thailand in the Bay of Bengal at the mouth of the Malacca Straits. We have also offered to contribute to capacity building of littoral states in this area. The participation of navies of Southeast Asian countries in the bi-annual MILAN exercises has also fostered closer regional cooperation on maritime security issues.

India has also, for many years, consistently urged the ARF to take up discussions on international terrorism. Since 2003, an Inter-Sessional Meeting on Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime has been established. Four meetings have been held, in which recent developments in regional terrorism, counter terrorism strategies and capacity building were discussed. India has also engaged countries of the ASEAN, the Far East and the Pacific bilaterally on cooperation to combat terrorism.

The India-ASEAN FTA lies at the heart of our engagement with ASEAN. Though the implementation of the FTA was to begin on 1 January 2006, the negotiating process has proved difficult. The challenge has been to harmonize the positions of two partners who are both willing, but have different characteristics. However, there have been positive developments in recent meetings of Senior Officials and there are now proposals on the table that provide us with the possibility of concluding the negotiations at an early date. I am hopeful that we will see a breakthrough in the coming months. While all sides may not get a solution that meets all their objectives, the time has come for us to be pragmatic and find an outcome that is a win-win for both sides.

Besides the India-ASEAN dialogue, there are other frameworks too that form the architecture of our Look East Policy and lend substance to our engagement with South-East Asia. BIMSTEC, or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical & Economic Cooperation, was established right here in Bangkok on 6 June 1997. Focusing on trade and investment, technology, transport and communications, energy, tourism and fisheries, the objective of the grouping is to serve as a bridge between South & South East Asia. Though formed in 1997, BIMSTEC only became active after the first Summit that was held in Thailand in July 2004. India will be hosting the second Summit sometime in early 2008. We hope that this will impart further momentum to the grouping.

The MGC or Mekong Ganga Cooperation is another building block of our Look East policy. As you can probably guess, it too has a Thailand angle. The idea of bringing together Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam to form the MGC came up in a conversation between the then Thai Foreign Minister and his Indian counterpart in New Delhi in July 2000. Both the Ganga and the Mekong are civilizational rivers, and the MGC initiative is indicative of the shared cultural linkages among the member countries. The focus of the MGC is on promotion of tourism and on cultural and educational cooperation. Just a few days ago, we hosted 20 Buddhist pilgrims from each MGC country in India for a visit to Buddhist holy sites. Initiatives such as these will, we hope, allow us to revive the cultural, commercial and other linkages that had brought together our countries in the ancient past.

India’s perspectives for the future of the region have been outlined in our vision of an Asian Economic Community. Our Prime Minister has spoken of an integrated market, spanning the distance from the Himalayas to the Pacific Ocean, linked by efficient road, rail, air and shipping services. To quote him: "This community of nations would constitute an 'arc of advantage' across which there would be large-scale movement of peoples, ideas and connectivity".

The East Asia Summit provides a forum for taking forward this vision. As a consequence of India’s increasing economic engagement and integration with the Southeast Asian and East Asian region, the share of East Asia Summit countries in India’s total trade increased from 18% to 26% between 1991 and 2006. The total volume of India’s trade with the 16 East Asia Summit countries amounted to US$ 80.1 billion in 2006. The coming together in this framework of increasingly interdependent countries that have transformed the region into the engine of the world economy, has the potential of redrawing equations, both within Asia and of Asia vis-à-vis the rest of the world.

At the inaugural East Asia Summit held in Kuala Lumpur in December 2005, India proposed the establishment of a robust institutional architecture that would form the basis for regional cooperation and action, and lead to engagement on a scale not seen in Asia in the past. We suggested that a Pan-Asian Free Trade Agreement could be the first building block for such a community. We are, indeed, gratified, that this suggestion has found acceptance. At the Second East Asia Summit held in Cebu in January this year, it was agreed to launch a Track II study on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership in East Asia among all East Asia Summit countries.

In my opening remarks, I had noted that shared history and geography make Thailand and India natural partners. Indeed, India’s ‘Look East’ Policy has found a perfect complement in Thailand’s ‘Look West’ Policy. As a result of these new approaches, India’s relations with Thailand have moved beyond the traditional areas of culture and commercial interaction to cooperation in security, defence, science and technology, as well as free trade. Thailand is our fourth largest trading partner in the ASEAN. When we signed a Framework Agreement on an FTA with Thailand in 2003, it became the first country in the ASEAN with which India had concluded such an arrangement. The Early Harvest Programme of the FTA is being implemented since 1st September 2004. We have had very constructive discussions with Thailand recently and are hopeful that it would be possible to sign the FTA on goods before the end of this year.

India’s partnership with ASEAN and other regional mechanisms has naturally given our multilateral cooperation with the region a major boost. At the same time, it has also served to significantly diversify and deepen our bilateral relationships with individual ASEAN member countries. Our contacts with almost all countries of the region are now marked by enhanced economic relations, closer diplomatic coordination, intensified cultural ties and greater people to people contact. Defence and security cooperation for mutual benefit too are aspects of some of these relationships. In the coming years, through mechanisms such as free trade or comprehensive economic cooperation agreements, we hope to further promote all these individual relationships as well.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

While we focused on ASEAN when we initiated our "Look East" policy a decade and a half ago, the policy has since evolved to include East Asia and countries of the Pacific, and we have welcomed the opportunities this has provided to enhance our relationships with these countries, all of whom have important roles to play in this extended region. Let me briefly touch on three of them.

As India’s largest neighbour and a key emerging player in the international arena, China remains an important priority of our foreign policy and a key component of our “Look East” policy. The rapidly growing trade and economic exchanges between the two countries are pointers to the fact that India and China are now constantly engaged in mutually rewarding pursuits on the basis of a wide array of complementarities. Frequent high level visits have further contributed to developing mutual trust and understanding.

While we remain fully conscious of our outstanding differences with China, including on the boundary question, the basic paradigm of our approach is to seek an all-round development of ties, without allowing these differences to define the agenda of the relationship. At the same time, we remain committed to addressing proactively these differences through peaceful dialogue on an equal footing.

While some degree of healthy competition between the two countries is inevitable, particularly in the area of trade and commerce, we believe that there is enough space and opportunity in the region, and beyond, for both India and China to grow together. In our view, the India-China partnership is an important determinant for regional and global peace and development, and for Asia’s emergence as the political and economic centre of the new international order. It is with this realization of the long term global and strategic character of India-China relations that the leaders of the two countries decided to establish a “Strategic and Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity” during the visit of the Chinese Premier H.E. Mr. Wen Jiabao to India in 2005.

We also attach high priority to strengthening our relations with Japan. There has been a visible transformation in the political ambience of the relationship on both sides. Our bilateral relations reflect a new found dynamism, propelled by the landmark visit of Prime Minister Koizumi to India in April, 2005, the visit of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to Japan in 2006 and the visit of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a few weeks ago. Japan is increasingly looking at its relations with India from a strategic perspective. Both our countries are now engaged in the process of deepening our Strategic and Global Partnership through high level visits, expanding economic relations and growing mutually beneficial exchanges in energy, science and technology, defence, cultural and academic fields.

With the Republic of Korea, where I am going day after tomorrow, the main emphasis of our relations is to consolidate and intensify the present positive trends in our engagement. India remains committed to pursuing with ROK a long term “Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity”. We seek to impart greater substance to our economic partnership through enhanced trade and investment flows, and also encourage Korean investments in various sectors, including infrastructure, ICT, hardware, steel, shipbuilding, hydrocarbon energy resources, biotech, pharmaceutical industries, etc.

Distinguished Guests,

Before I conclude, let me return to the theme of India-Thailand linkages.

The colonial intervention in India in the 19th century caused a break in the trade and movement of people between our two countries, which had existed over the ages. This is an area in which work is now being done. We already have, at present, more than a hundred flights a week between our two countries. This number is fast increasing. In 2006, nearly half a million Indians visited Thailand and over 33,000 Thais traveled to India.

Much more needs to be done in the field of transportation linkages. The India-ASEAN Car Rally held in October-November 2004 demonstrated the existence of land route connectivity between our two countries. There are, however, missing links in the road that goes from Moreh in India, through Bagan in Myanmar, to Mae Sot in Thailand. A number of stretches of the road also need to be upgraded.

In April 2002, India, Myanmar and Thailand agreed to cooperate in the construction of a trilateral highway that would link the two countries. The road alignment for the highway, which that would be 1400 kms. in length, has been completed. While work has started, it could - in our view - move much faster.

The idea of a road link between India and Thailand cannot but captivate one's imagination. For India, it would mean road connectivity with all of ASEAN. For Thailand, it would mean road connectivity with a market of more than a billion people. For both countries, the trilateral highway would be a highway to greater prosperity.

The eight North Eastern States of India are often described as land locked. They are joined to the rest of India by a narrow land corridor that skirts the north of Bangladesh. This land corridor is only 21 to 40 kms in width and is known as the Chicken's Neck. This has been a serious impediment for the development of the region, which has lagged behind the rest of the country in terms of infrastructure and industrial development. In recent months, Thailand has taken some important steps to forge a closer relationship with this region of India and we in India are committed to cooperation with Thailand in this endeavour.

Our Minister for the Development of the North East Region visited Thailand in March 2007 with a large business delegation. The Thai Minister of Commerce followed this up with his valedictory address at the Third North East Summit held in New Delhi on 11 April 2007. He subsequently led a group of Thai business leaders to the North East States of India from 22-25 June 2007. This will now be followed by a North East India Investment Opportunities week in Bangkok from 1-4 October 2007.

We propose to have seminars, business-to-business meetings, an exhibition showcasing products from North East India, a food festival, cultural evenings and a fashion show during this week. All of Thailand knows India, particularly as the land of Lord Buddha. We hope that soon all of Thailand will also get to know North East India, and that our "Look East" policy, the India-Thailand relationship and the trilateral highway project will change the North East of India from being land-locked to being land- linked. While this is a long-term vision, it is also one that drives forward our bilateral relationship.

I will, in conclusion, say that India is bound by close ties of history, geography and culture to Thailand and to South East Asia. In the modern age, we jointly seek a future that fuels itself both by our shared past and our current commonalities. I believe that we are destined to be on the same side of history, as neighbours, as friends and as partners in the quest for progress. By working together, we can contribute to making the 21st century truly an Asian Century.

Thank you for doing me the honour of inviting me to speak to you and for listening so patiently.

Thank you.

 

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