Wooing the Asian tigers

MY WORD!

It's a mega-event that mixes sport with a dash of politics. In a few months from now about 30 4x4 vehicles will assemble in Imphal for a tough 5,000 km rally across half of Asia. They'll flag off from the North-east town and drive across Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.

What's the aim of this gruelling journey? From the auto manufacturers point, of course, it will be to demonstrate the toughness of their vehicles. But the cars will arrive at their destination around the time of an Asean summit.

Was this the route that ancient Indian traders took to these regions? That isn't quite certain. But the point that India wants to emphasise is that countries like Laos or Kampuchea aren't as far as we sometimes think.

That's a political point that the Indian government is determined to make. It's part of a long-drawn wooing game that India has been playing in recent years.

In October Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in Bali pressing flesh and making friends with the leaders of Asean. The Vajpayee trip to Bali during the Asean summit was a major event and an acknowledgment by the organisation's leaders that India is becoming integral to their economic plans for the future.

Wooing Asean has been a long-range Indian goal ever since the early '90s. On the other side too, this country has had powerful friends and allies. In the early '90s Singapore Supremo Lee Kuan Yew had declared that India was the 'west wing of the Asean Jumbo Jet'. Lee was making the point that both China (the east wing) and India are equally important to the regional grouping.

That was a wonderful piece of imagery but it didn't work because the outside world had overestimated the impact of Manmohan Singh's reforms and India's capacity to absorb foreign investment. But Lee is still out there championing the Indian cause and telling everyone how important this country is in Singapore's scheme of things. Meanwhile, his son who is the deputy prime minister of the island nation has just been travelling round the country on a 10-day tour.

Meanwhile, from another direction, the Thai Prime Minister Taksin Shinawatra is also singing from the same hymn sheet. The result is that Indian and Thai negotiators are busy hammering out the details of a free trade agreement between the two countries.

Of course, the free trade agreement has stirred up considerable worries amongst local manufacturers but that's another issue altogether. Vajpayee has been forced to postpone a trip to Thailand because of the elections but both prime ministers are still closely overseeing the free trade talks.

Even while the free trade negotiations are underway Vajpayee surprised the other Asean countries by throwing in the offer of an 'open skies' policy for Asean airlines. Nobody had expected a move of that scale. The Thais, not wanting to show wanting, quickly came out with a counter-offer from their side.

Most amazingly, the 'open skies' policy and the free trade negotiations are racing ahead even though the general elections are less than three months away. One of the unusual features "" and one of the commendable ones "" of this government is that it doesn't appear to be going into lame duck mode before the elections.

India's overtures to Asean are probably well-timed. The organisation has suddenly become aware of India's economic strength and the fact that this country can't be ignored. Also, there is always the China factor. All the Asean are closely linked to China but they are also aware of its power and they feel the need for a counterweight. Also, ever since the WTO talks broke down in Cancun lot of countries have been racing to create regional alliances.

The move towards Asean was, perhaps, inevitable. Bangkok or Singapore might have seemed like far off places once upon a time but in this globalised world where travel is cheap and commonplace, they've turned into easy-to-reach neighbours. And that's an unchangeable reality of the new world order.