The
dominant impulse of India’s Look East Policy (LEP) that was launched in 1992
was economic and cultural, the objective being to reintegrate India
economically and culturally with our civilisational neighbours of South East
(SE) Asia. In December 2012, the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit was held in
New Delhi to signify two decades of India’s LEP. Growing trade ties have
corresponded with the expansion of relationship in the areas of defence and
security and thus the engagement which was primarily political and economic has
acquired strategic content in the recent years. India and countries of South
Asia share many threats and challenges especially in the areas of
non-conventional security. India and SE Asian nations have been strengthening
their defence and security relationship both at bilateral and multilateral
levels to address such threats. Defence cooperation with ASEAN members is
geared primarily towards exchanges of high-level visits, strategic dialogues,
port calls, training exchanges, joint exercises and provision of defence
equipment.
Prime
Minster Dr Manmohan Singh during his visit to Myanmar in April 2012 observed
that both India and Myanmar need to “expand our security cooperation that is
vital not only to maintain peace along our land borders but also to protect
maritime trade which we hope will open up through the sea route between Kolkata
and Sittwe.”
India
ramped up cooperation with Myanmar through high level visits by the Defence
Minister Mr AK Antony in January, 2013 and last year through the visit of
Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee and Chief of the Air Staff, ACM Norman
Browne from November 26 to 29. Myanmar army has been looking for hardware and
India has been providing items such as transport aircraft, helicopters and
other defence equipment. India is also focussed on expanding training and
capacity building of the Myanmar armed forces. Further, Myanmar navy has been
regularly taking part in India’s Milan series of naval exercises since 2006.
Malacca
Straits is the pivotal transiting point through which most of the oil and gas
transportation of India, Southeast and East Asian countries take place.
Increasing incidence of piracy for ransom and smuggling in the high seas, which
threatens uninterrupted transportation of oil and gas, has prompted these
states to secure the sea lanes. Here cooperation with Indonesia, Singapore,
Thailand and Malaysia to secure Malacca Straits and the neighbouring areas
remains strategically important.
Malacca
Straits are important to both India and Indonesia and the two countries signed a
Defence Cooperation Agreement in 2001 and have had regular defence exchanges
including the exchange of high level visits, ship visits, officers studying in
Staff Colleges in either country and joint coordinated patrols in the mouth of
the Malacca Straits. Indonesian Navy ships have consistently participated in
the Milan series of exercise conducted near the Andaman and Nicobar islands by
the Indian Navy.
Last
October, Antony visited Indonesia to attend the first Ministerial level
biennial defence dialogue between the two countries, where he observed ‘We have
a vital stake in the evolution of balanced security and cooperation mechanisms
through which we can build consensus and pursue dialogue. We seek to improve
our partnership with all countries in the Indian Ocean Region on bilateral
basis as well as through multilateral fora like Indian Ocean Naval Symposium
(IONS), Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) etc’.
India has also been supporting the freedom of navigation and United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) through South China Sea where some of
the ASEAN countries are at the receiving end of China’s assertive policies.
Further,
as part of deepening its engagement with the Southeast Asian countries through
military to military relations, India has provided access to Singapore armed
forces to use Indian training facilities like Air Force and Artillery firing
ranges. Singapore has signed Defence Cooperative Agreement in 2003 and a
“Bilateral Agreement for the Conduct of Joint Military Training and Exercises
in India”. Naval exercises between both the Navies are being conducted annually
since 1994; in 2011, the naval exercise between both the Navies were conducted
in South China Sea and the shore phase of the exercise was conducted at the
Changi Naval Base of Singapore.
During
Mr Antony’s visit to Singapore in June this year, India and Singapore signed a
fresh agreement to extend the use of training and exercise facilities in India
by the Singapore Army for a further period of five years. A bilateral agreement
for utilization of facilities in India by the Singapore Air Force and Army was
signed in October 2007 and August 2008 respectively. Singapore is the only
country to which India is offering such facilities.
The
third country which remains important in the context of Malacca Straits and
adjoining maritime area is Malaysia. India-Malaysia defence relations have been
growing over the years after signing of MOU on Defence Cooperation (MIDCOM) in
1993. The ninth meeting of the MIDCOM was held in Kuala Lumpur in January 2012.
India’s Chief of Air Staff visited Malaysia in February 2012 and Malaysia’s
Chiefs of Army and Navy both visited India in April 2012. The IAF Training Team
deployed in Malaysia trained Malaysian pilots on the SU-30 MKM aircraft for
two-and-a-half years since February 2008. Malaysia has also been looking for
training its Scorpene submarine crew and maintenance of the submarines. These
are areas where both sides can cooperate as India is also acquiring such
submarines.
Thailand
is another important Indian Ocean littoral state with which India shares
maritime boundary. Cooperation between the two countries is based on the Joint
Working Group on security established in 2003 has been now upgraded to include
defence exchanges. The first meeting of India-Thailand Defence Dialogue was
held in New Delhi in December 2011 and a bilateral MOU on Defence cooperation
was signed in January 2012. The current Defence cooperation comprises regular
joint exercises, coordinated maritime patrols near the international maritime
boundary to counter terrorism, piracy and smuggling; training of officers at
each other’s’ Armed Forces Training institutions and participation as observers
in military exercises. Defence Minister Mr AK Anthony visited Bangkok in June
this year. The two Ministers reviewed regional security situation and expressed
their support for collaborative regional mechanisms such as AEAN Defence
Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) Plus for maintaining regional peace and security,
freedom of navigation, keeping open sea lanes of communication, and cooperation
in areas such as anti-piracy, disaster relief and rescue.
Securing
Sea Lines of Communication (SLOCs) and Malacca Straits is also important for
the South East countries like Vietnam that has intensified its defence
relationship with India. For the ASEAN countries, it is geo-strategically
prudent to forge a defence relationship of a greater or lesser degree with
India and the US as some sort of balance of power arrangements possibly against
a rising and assertive China that is hardly going to remain status quoist.
An
MOU between Vietnam and India was signed in 2009 for defence cooperation though
the defence exchanges between both nations pre date this period. India and
Vietnam face a common challenge from China and both have been target of its
muscular policies. Some of the engines of Vietnamese MiG-21 aircrafts have been
overhauled in India. There are also mechanisms for sharing of strategic
perceptions and naval cooperation between the two countries. Coordinated
patrols by the Vietnamese sea–police and the Indian Coast Guard are conducted
jointly in addition to training of Vietnamese air force pilots. Besides
providing some defence equipment, India has also been helping Vietnam to set up
a domestic defence industry.
Similarly,
India has defence cooperation and exchanges with Cambodia, Laos, Brunei and
Philippines. For instance, India is setting up an Air Force Academy in Laos. An
Indian military delegation led by the Army Chief visited Laos in December 2011.
Discussions revolved around on going defence cooperation initiatives between
India and Laos. The Army Chief reaffirmed India’s commitment to the capacity
building of the Lao People’s Army and discussed a range of defence cooperation
initiatives with the Lao army leadership. The delegation visited the Kaysone
Phomvihane Academy for National Defence, where a two-member training team from
the Indian Army has been in place for the last 15 years.
Exchange
of visits of defence officials, goodwill visits by Indian Naval Ships to
Cambodia’s ports, gift of medical equipment & other stores and imparting of
training courses to Royal Cambodian Air Force (RCAF) personnel in demining and
peace keeping operations have been part of the defence exchanges. On the
security front, India and Cambodia have signed an Agreement on Combating
International Terrorism, Organized Crimes and Illicit Drug Trafficking in
December, 2005. With Brunei, there has been some degree of defence cooperation
with Indian naval ships participating in the first-ever Brunei International
Fleet Review to mark the 50th anniversary of Royal Brunei Armed Forces.
So
far as Philippines is concerned, an impetus to defence cooperation has been
imparted in recent years. With defence cooperation between the two countries
having been formally established through the 2006 Philippines-India Agreement
Concerning Defence Cooperation, Indian Navy and Coast Guard ships regularly
visit the Philippines. The participation of officers of the armed forces of
both countries in various specialized training courses in each other’s
countries has increased. There are also arrangements for sharing of
intelligence and perceptions on certain other sensitive issues. To enhance the
defence cooperation further, a Joint Defence Cooperation Committee was
constituted which had its first meeting in Manila in January 2012.
At
the multilateral level, India has also become a member of ASEAN Defence
Ministers' Meet –Plus Eight (ADMM-Plus). The basic objective of creating this
framework was to bring about co-operative security, especially in the areas of
humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, maritime security, counter-terrorism
and peace keeping operations. ADMM-Plus Eight has also proposed furthering of
bilateral and multilateral dialogue and sharing of expertise among the military
forces of member states. The arrangement also advanced proposals to counter
particular threats and issues such as piracy and natural disaster through joint
military exercises.
Both
India and ASEAN members have been on an upward economic trajectory and as they
grow, the security and strategic environment has also been becoming complex.
While these nations have been in a beneficial economic relationship with India
and China, they remain wary of China’s growing assertion and irredentist
tendencies. India’s efforts in defence cooperation with ASEAN also aims at
addressing its own strategic concerns both in the Indian Ocean littoral as well
as in South China Sea. Both Ministry of Defence and Ministry of External
Affairs need to coordinate their efforts in order to add meaningful substance
to the evolving defence and security relationship with the ASEAN members as
part of a composite endeavour to achieve success in the strategic objectives of
its LEP. The MOD also needs to allot more vacancies to the defence officers of
the SE Asian countries for training at our defence establishments. Frequency of
joint military exercises also needs to be increased to improve levels of
interoperability. There is also a case for reviewing our restrictive policies
on export of defence hardware to South East Asian nations.
Brig (Retd) Vinod Anand, Senior Fellow, VIF
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