Deepak Dwivedi
PRIME Minister Narendra Modi recently visited Brunei and Singapore, the two countries that hold vital significance for India’s engagements with South-East Asia in different, yet interlinked, ways. Though South-East Asia has historic and civilisational ties with India and mutual bonding which is expressed in popular culture and folklore, India’s foreign policy vision has undergone creative transformation under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in alignment with New Delhi’s own strategic needs, economic clout, connectivity requirements, expansionist growth of China, and the re-positioning of American interests in the regional political dynamics.
Soon after taking over as the Prime Minister in 2014, Modi had announced an expanded and extended policy towards the East in conjunction with the geopolitical shifts in the Indo-Pacific. He rebranded India’s ‘Look East Policy’ unveiled by then-Prime Minister Narasimha Rao in early 1990s as ‘Act East Policy’. This was imperative in the backdrop of China’s vaulting geopolitical ambitions, which made the region a strategic hotspot.
India needed to enhance its security and political co-operation with the countries in the region while redoubling its efforts to trade and economic cooperation. The region defies the notions of any unidimensional approach and PM Modi’s choice of Brunei and Singapore was significant.
While remaining a silent claimant to the South China Sea, Brunei, which just saw the first Indian prime ministerial visit, has effectively been hedging between the US and China. Using its geographical location to the South China Sea, and all-important military bases in the region, Brunei could foster a robust military partnership with the US while being an important member of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and while building on a forward-looking partnership with India. During his visit, PM Modi engaged in discussions with Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, Brunei’s long-reigning monarch, to further strengthen commercial, cultural, and defence ties. A small but resource-rich nation in Southeast Asia, Brunei is known for its vast oil and gas reserves and plays a vital role in India’s regional outreach.
As in the case of Brunei, bilateral ties with Singapore were upgraded to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership during PM Modi’s visit. This was a clear signal about the commitment of the two countries to further expand their engagement. Singapore is India’s biggest source of foreign direct investment. A significant outcome of the visit was the reiteration by the two countries of an open, free and inclusive Indo-Pacific. Discussions between the two sides built upon the comprehensive discussions at the second India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable on August 26. The most significant outcome of PM Modi’s visit was the signing of four agreements, which will make bilateral ties future-ready by enhancing cooperation in the areas of digital technologies, semiconductor ecosystem, health & medicine, and education.
PM Modi’s interactions show that the pace is being picked up in engaging with countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with a view to enhancing the Act East Policy, now in its 10th year. After recent engagements with visiting PMs of Vietnam and Malaysia, PM Modi has just completed a successful visit to Brunei and Singapore. This would have included a visit to Thailand, had the change of government not taken place there.
