India seeks to build security bridges with Asean members

NEW DELHI: India seeks to help improve security networks with countries in the Asean region, using strong bilateral relations and economic and physical integration with the member countries.
Delivering the keynote address at an event by Research and Information Systems (RIS) to celebrate 25 years of India-Asean relations, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said, “India has been working with Asean towards evolving regional security architecture in the Asia-Pacific that hinges on emphasising the peaceful settlement of disputes, finding collaborative solutions to emerging and non-traditional challenges, and support for the centrality of Asean.”
India’s remarks come at a time when China is rapidly establishing dominance over the South China Sea with barely any pushback from either the US or any other power.The minister’s remarks come days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to meet Donald Trump during which India hopes to get a better understanding of how the US approaches its “pivot” to Asia.
While India cannot match the economic heft China brings to the table, India is hoping to build collaborative security structures, extending its security cooperation to all Asean countries. While no country takes India’s economic promises very seriously, India has an enviable reputation as a reliable security partner, largely because it is a territorially ‘satisfied’ power, unlike China.
Swaraj said, “India looks towards strengthening its relations in the region through boosting its security networks, benefiting from the ongoing economic and physical integration under way in the region as well as reviving age-old historical links with the countries of South East Asia.”
India wants to do this, she said, by increasing strategic partnerships with the countries in the region. “While on the one hand, the ‘Act East’ policy aims to enhance India's multi-faceted engagement with Asean and the wider Asia-Pacific, on the other, it seeks to deepen economic integration, politicosecurity cooperation and socio-cultural dialogue with countries of the region for domestically better integrating our northeast with the wider North East ...”
In recent months, India has also lifted its opposition to the RCEP negotiations by dropping its insistence on a three-tier tariff concession structure. But India remains wary of China getting a free entry into the Indian market, without reciprocal concessions.
China has large nontariff barriers to services, pharmaceuticals etc, where India has an advantage.