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| Southeast Asian nations see leadership role for India |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Oct 27, 2009, 14:37 IST |
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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's "article of faith" that his country needs to work closely with the economies of Southeast Asia has made these nations look up to India for leadership on a host of global issues, be it climate change or financial crisis.
"My own view is that India’s destiny lies in working closely with the economies of Southeast Asia," Singh said at the ASEAN and East Asia Summits (EAS) which saw 16 leaders, including those from Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, China, Australia and South Korea converge at the Thai beach town of Cha-Am Hua Hin.
With an over $1 trillion economy and a market catchment of over 1.2 billion people, India's transformation weighs heavily on the rest of growing Asian nations.
"EAS countries recognise the impact of India’s socio-economic transformation on the reshaping of the global economic order, and the opportunities this has for accelerating Asia’s own growth," the Prime Minister said on the outcome of these meetings.
He said he was "convinced that there is tremendous goodwill for India in South East and East Asia, and therefore the sky is the limit for our engagement with this region," Singh said.
India's views that a "differentiated" responsibility be given to the countries on climate change and the global fiscal stimuli should remain in tact found support at these meetings. India, along with several other developing countries, has insisted that the support measures by the governments and the central banks in most of the developed nations should continue.
Though there are signs that the economies of the US and other rich nations have started improving, it is early days for pulling out the sops which ran into trillions of dollars all over the world. This has been a consistent Indian stand which found favour at the ASEAN and EA summits.
"We were encouraged that the global economy had shown signs of recovery, but were of the view that the East Asia participating countries should remain vigilant...We (also) call on a need to continue with stimulus package until recovery is secured...," Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on behalf of the East Asian countries.
The idea of the Japanese leadership to weave a larger Asian economic community that will allow free flow of trade among these nations goes well with the India's 'Look East policy' which Singh has been advocating since his days as Finance Minister in 1990s.
"The vision of Asian economic integration by coalescing the Free Trade Agreements among member Asian countries into an Asian Regional Trade Agreement is a pivotal step towards the integration of Asia into a common unit," Singh had said.
In fact, India has already signed a Trade in Goods Agreement with the 10-nation ASEAN bloc that will come into effect from January 2010. Trade officials are now talking to open engagements in services as well.
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