India as an Asia Pacific Power: India's strategic relationships with Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia (original) (raw)

India's foreign policy towards Malaysia & Singapore: Evolution and determinants

2013

This paper presents a review of the evolution of India's relations with Southeast Asian countries, particularly Malaysia and Singapore. Over the centuries, India and Southeast Asia have shared history, culture and social values. As a result, the relationships between these two regions exhibit an evolving pattern. During the onset of the Cold War when the world had a bipolar system, India made some weak policy choices due to several factors which affected its relations with Southeast Asia adversely. However, after the end of the Cold War and fall of the Soviet Union, India felt a need to strengthen its ties with Southeast Asia and thus launched the Look East Policy. This paper traces the evolution of India's foreign policy towards Malaysia through two defining periods-preand post-Cold War. An attempt is also made to explain this evolution and shift from time to time in India's foreign policy towards Malaysia by highlighting the factors responsible for this. The paper makes important contributions by helping understand the trajectory of relations between India, a major regional power and Malaysia. This paper also briefly covers some historical importance of Singapore to India and Malaysia, since both Malaysia and Singapore are considered as two tiger economies in the Southeast Asian region.

India’s Foreign Policy towards Malaysia & Singapore: Evolution and Determinants

2016

This paper presents a review of the evolution of India’s relations with Southeast Asian countries, particularly Malaysia and Singapore. Over the centuries, India and Southeast Asia have shared history, culture and social values. As a result, the relationships between these two regions exhibit an evolving pattern. During the onset of the Cold War when the world had a bipolar system, India made some weak policy choices due to several factors which affected its relations with Southeast Asia adversely. However, after the end of the Cold War and fall of the Soviet Union, India felt a need to strengthen its ties with Southeast Asia and thus launched the Look East Policy. This paper traces the evolution of India’s foreign policy towards Malaysia through two defining periods – pre-and post-Cold War. An attempt is also made to explain this evolution and shift from time to time in India’s foreign policy towards Malaysia by highlighting the factors responsible for this. The paper makes importa...

India-Singapore Relations: Constructing a" New" Bilateral Relationship

Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of …, 2010

For much of their pre-independence history, India and Singapore maintained close relations. As a trading post established by the British East India Company in 1819, Singapore was directly administered by British India, and official linkages continued to exist even after Singapore was put under the purview of the British Colonial Office in 1876. The colonial period also saw significant immigration from British India into Singapore. However, in the post-independence phase, relations between the two states generally cooled in the context of the Cold War. Nevertheless, over the past fifteen years, bilateral relations have experienced an upswing, characterized by collaboration across a range of areas. This paper examines recent trends in the India-Singapore relationship, looking at both "traditional" issue areas like economic and defence-strategic ties, as well as "non-traditional" issue areas like education-knowledge transfer and building societal-level links between the two countries. The paper also explores future possibilities and potential pitfalls in bilateral ties.

Shifting trends in India and Southeast Asia relations

International Journal of Advanced Research in Management and Social Sciences, 2015

India's Relations have passed through many phases and experienced ups and downs with Southeast Asia, a region which has indeed occupied a place in India's foreign policy. But the options and capabilities that were required to achieve desired goals and objectives were never put into operation until recently when India suddenly felt a sense of envy for the overall development and progress that region had accomplished within a period of three decades, and evolved to the extent of helping India to integrate itself with the global economy. That the line of thinking in India's relations towards Southeast Asia found its expression more concretely in the then India's Prime Minister Narasimha Rao's Singapore lecture in 1994, the precursor of what is now known as India's Look East policy. From that time onwards, India mobilized its diplomatic, political and economic resources to its optimal level so much as to achieve a multi-dimensional relation with the countries of ...

Strategic Convergences Between India and Australia in Southeast Asia

This article looks at strategic convergences between India and Australia in Southeast Asia. It first examines the development of India’s strategic role in Southeast Asia and the trajectory of relations between Australia and India over the last decade or so. It then considers the convergence of India and Australia’s strategic interests in Southeast Asia and review opportunities for strategic cooperation in the region, including in the political diplomatic area and cooperation in maritime security. Finally it will consider the idea of the “Indo-Pacific” as a single strategic region and the potential significance of this for the roles of Australia and India in Southeast Asia.

Malaysia and India’s Look East Policy (LEP) : handin hand towards greater cooperation / Suseela Devi Chandran

Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, 2014

It has been two decades since India launched its much-vaunted 'Look East Policy' (LEP). However, given the 20 years of India's LEP, Malaysia perceives that India's LEP lacks "robustness". India may claim its success of LEP by it engagement with countries in the Southeast Asia region. However, the success of LEP towards each individual country varies. The recent conclusion of free trade agreements between Malaysia and India called Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) on February 2011 under the umbrella of Strategic Partnership provided new opportunities for economic collaboration. The two countries presently are moving forward to materialize the 'Strategic Partnership' that was established in October 2010. This 'strategic partnership' meant building stronger bilateral ties and re-engagement in areas such as the economy, security-defence, and sociocultural dimensions. This paper focuses on Malaysia's perspective on India's LEP and how Malaysia and India are working together through this strategic partnership. This paper is divided into four parts: First, an overall perspective on Malaysia-India relations is discussed briefly mainly from economic, defence and socio cultural areas. Second, it examines India's LEP from Malaysia's perspective. Third, the paper provides some recommendation on how Malaysia and India can work together. Fourth, the paper concludes by stating that the Malaysia-India bilateral relations could move on beyond the traditionally historical and cultural linkages to a higher level of strategic partnership.

Malaysia and India’s Look East Policy (LEP): Hand in Hand towards Greater Cooperation

2014

It has been two decades since India launched its much-vaunted ‘Look East Policy’ (LEP). However, given the 20 years of India’s LEP, Malaysia perceives that India’s LEP lacks “robustness”. India may claim its success of LEP by it engagement with countries in the Southeast Asia region. However, the success of LEP towards each individual country varies. The recent conclusion of free trade agreements between Malaysia and India called Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) on February 2011 under the umbrella of Strategic Partnership provided new opportunities for economic collaboration. The two countries presently are moving forward to materialize the ‘Strategic Partnership’ that was established in October 2010. This ‘strategic partnership’ meant building stronger bilateral ties and re-engagement in areas such as the economy, security-defence, and sociocultural dimensions. This paper focuses on Malaysia’s perspective on India’s LEP and how Malaysia and India are working toge...

India’s Rapprochement to Southeast Asia: an Indonesian Perspective

This essay explores the relationship between India and Southeast Asia from an Indonesian perspective. As a continuation of PM Narashima Rao’s ‘Look East Policy’ launched in 1991, India committed to re-engage with Southeast Asian countries and ASEAN after Indian relative neglect to the region during the Cold War period. India’s raproachement to this region has been continuosly peaceful, hardly any military force. The peaceful way of India’s approach the people of Southeast Asia has been fruitful with the acceptance of India’s culture. I argue that India need to continue the warmth relationship in the millenia with nations of Southeast Asia by exercising her softpower. Keywords: Southeast Asia, Look East Policy, rapproachement, softpower.