New Delhi: Indonesia hopes that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 12-point proposal made at the ASEAN-India summit last September would translate into “more concrete” outcomes, the Indonesian envoy to India Ina Krisnamurthi told ThePrint Tuesday.
“If you remember last year Prime Minister Modi went to Jakarta for the ASEAN-India summit as well as East Asia summit in the midst of his busy schedule in preparing for the G20 summit. So we thank and commend the Indian government and in particular the Prime Minister to make a strong effort for being there at the EAS and ASEAN-India summit,” said Krisnamurthi, on the sidelines of an event hosted by the German embassy on “Diversity in Diplomacy”, which focused on a feminist foreign policy.
The Indonesian ambassador added: “This year more importantly because India is celebrating 10 years anniversary of the Act East Policy, we are hoping that of the 12 points PM Modi presented at the ASEAN-India summit (2023), he will elevate that idea and translate those points into something more concrete.”
Modi is scheduled to be in Vientiane, Laos on 10 and 11 October to attend this year’s ASEAN-India Summit and East Asia Summit.
Days before chairing the G20 Leaders’ Summit last September, he had led the Indian delegation at the ASEAN-India and East Asia summits. The leaders’ of the G20 countries descended to India for the Leaders’ Summit, which was held on 9 September 2023 and 10 September 2023.
At the ASEAN-India summit, Modi made a 12-point proposal to enhance ties between the regional grouping and New Delhi. The proposal included strengthening cooperation in the areas of connectivity, digital transformation, trade and economic engagement, addressing contemporary challenges, people-to-people contacts and deepening strategic engagement, according to a readout issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
The proposal focused on a multi-modal transport corridor connecting Southeast Asia to West Asia and Europe via India, digital public infrastructure, collectively raising issues of the Global South at multilateral fora, the collective fight against terrorism, terror-financing and cyber disinformation, besides disaster management, to name a few sectors.
Days later, on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi, leaders of the US, Italy, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), France, the European Union and India announced a memorandum of understanding for the creation of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). The plan envisioned a multi-modal transport corridor connecting India to Europe via West Asia.
India had envisioned a highway through Myanmar to Thailand to connect South Asia with Southeast Asia as early as 2002. Construction of the 1,360-km transnational land corridor began only a decade later, with the aim of connecting Moreh in the Indian state of Manipur with Mae Sot in Thailand.
The completion of both transport corridors as planned is a part of India’s Atlantic Ocean to Pacific Ocean push, with India being the connecting point for countries in these regions. However, IMEC has been hamstrung with the escalating war in West Asia, which began after Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, and in recent weeks saw Tel Aviv expand their operations into Southern Lebanon.
Similarly, Myanmar being in the midst of a nearly four-year long civil war impacts the completion of the highway connecting India with Thailand.
Indonesia is a close partner with India in the realm of energy, while a number of deals including the purchase of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles and defence cooperation have been held up due to general elections in both countries.
In November 2023, the Indonesian envoy to India had said that these decisions on these deals would be taken only after Indonesian elections, which were held earlier this year.
“So the new government, the President-elect will be inaugurated this month on 20 October and the cabinet, there is an indication that he will try to inaugurate the (new) cabinet right after. We hope to see more concrete steps in near future,” said Krisnamurthi Tuesday on the pending deals.
ASEAN is a fifty year old success story. Economic cooperation, without the political integration the EEC has been working on. In a better world, SAARC and ASEAN would be sister organisations, blending into each other, geographically and economically. BIMSTEC is not quite the same, and it will now be affected by developments in Bangladesh.