Remarks by Ambassador Pranay Verma
At VIISAS Conference on
“India’s relations with its neighbouring countries
in the new context”
(22 October 2019)
For Vietnamese version, please read here.
I compliment the Vietnam Institute of Indian and Southwest Asian Studies (VIISAS) to organize this conference on India’s relations with its neighbouring countries in the new context.
It is great to see VIISAS playing such an important role in promoting serious discourse among the academic and strategic communities of India and Vietnam.
Such interactions are crucial to developing deeper appreciation of each other’s policy choices and priorities as well as a comprehensive understanding of how our two countries view the significance of our comprehensive strategic partnership.
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The theme of this conference - India’s relations with its neighbouring countries in the new context - is quite pertinent.
I would like to dwell upon the qualifier “the new context”.
While India’s relations with its neighbours have been analyzed and dissected many times by scholars interested in studying our region, how do we define the new context?
I will share some of my thoughts on this.
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The new context, in my view, is a more self-assured and confident India, an India engaged in implementing a transformational agenda that places premium on good governance, on quality of life, on empowerment of people through technology, innovation and participation, and on inclusive and sustainable development.
This domestic agenda has an obvious external dimension – of seeking international partnerships to achieve the national goals, of building more proactive interlinkages for peace, security and prosperity with neighbours and extended neighbours, and to develop a wider web of mutually rewarding collaborations, rather than seeking development in isolation.
As India strives to become a five trillion-dollar economy in the next five years, it is creating capabilities and demands that present unique opportunities for all our partners, particularly our neighbours, to build mutually reinforcing stakes for shared prosperity and development.
The other new context, in my view, is a greater awareness on India’s part of its due role in the regional and global order, and its willingness to play that role, to be a contributor of ideas and capabilities in the international arena, and to embrace globalism and internationalism at a time when national instincts are increasingly turning inwards.
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It is in these, what we may call the “new contexts”, that in my view, we should assess India’s foreign policy towards our neighbours and extended neighbours - whether it is under the rubric of our “Neighbourhood First” Policy or the framework of “Act East” Policy or the concept of SAGAR (Security and Growth for All the Region) or the Vision for the Indo-Pacific.
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Our “Neighbourhood First” policy, for example, focuses on a sincere, generous and non-reciprocal effort at building connectivity, promoting commerce and leveraging our cultural and civilizational links in our immediate neighbourhood to build greater synergy in a region that continues to yearn for integration.
Improved infrastructure, stronger development and security cooperation and people-centric initiatives remain the common denominators of our neighbourhood and regional policy choices.
Based on this approach, we have positioned India as a partner of choice for our neighbours, based on their own priorities and developmental aspirations, through responsible and prudent financing, by respecting their sovereignty, and by helping them see the economic and geographical logic of such partnership.
As part of this proactive engagement, we have resolved many long pending issues, such as our border demarcation with Bangladesh, extended timely assistance in times of need and distress, and expanded our development cooperation in terms of range, quality and quantum of commitments as well as pace of implementation.
Overall, our approach and the sincerity of our efforts are receiving growing support from our partners in the region.
One marker of this is the number of connectivity initiatives we have taken in our neighbourhood and their success. I will count some of them:
- The inland water transport, container depots, upgrading and building of rail and road links, and cross-border energy links in Bangladesh;
- The Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit project, India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway and the Rhi-Tiddim Road in Myanmar.
- A number of cross-border rail links, transmission lines, roads and bridges, Integrated Check Posts and a cross-border petroleum pipeline completed in record time with Nepal.
- The air freight corridor between India and Afghanistan and the development of Chabahar Port as a gateway for onward connectivity to and from Afghanistan and Central Asia.
- Development of railway sector in Sri Lanka.
- Development of maritime and aviation infrastructure in Maldives which will enhance connectivity among its 200 inhabited islands and their connectivity with Indian ports.
India has always come forward to share the fruits of its economic, scientific and technological progress with its neighbours. This is reflected in our initiatives such as the launch of South Asia Satellite, extension of India’s National Knowledge Network (NKN), continued support to South Asian University (SAU) and SAARC Disaster Management Centre.
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This general approach to our neighbourhood is embedded in our broader outlook for the Indo-Pacific region, which in a way links our immediate neighbourhood to our extended one, both in the east and the west. This Indo-Pacific construct is based on development and connectivity, in which we believe India can play a unique role by virtue of its geographical location and economic strengths.
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As a sub-regional cooperation framework, BIMSTEC has made remarkable progress in the last two decades. This area of ??Bay of Bengal holds great significance for our development, security and progress. It is where both our "Neighborhood First" and the "Act East" policies converge.
Here again, connectivity is a key theme. We are currently discussing a Coastal Shipping Agreement and a Motor Vehicle Agreement in the BIMSTEC format and also in the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) group. Cooperation under BBIN is also being discussed in the areas of power and water resources management.
In addition, under the ASEAN and Mekong Ganga Cooperation frameworks, where we are closely engaged with Vietnam, we have been promoting the connectivity agenda very actively. Our proposal for digital villages in Mekong countries is an example of digital connectivity and knowledge partnership that we seek with the Mekong countries.
We are also exploring extending the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway further to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.
Further reinforcing its commitment to regional and sub-regional cooperation in its extended neighbourhood, India has now joined ACMECS as a development partner.
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Unfortunately, however, the grim side of our region’s story remains to be the presence of the epicentre of global terrorism right at our periphery, which continues posing a grave challenge to the security and development, not just of India, but the whole region. Cross-border terrorism has inflicted upon us loss of more than 40,000 lives in the last three decades. It has also severely thwarted regional integration in South Asia.
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Despite these odds, I would like to conclude by saying that we remain confident of our capability to deliver progress and prosperity for our region.
The concentric circles of our proactive engagement with neighbors and near neighbours are premised on our conviction that the time has come for all of us to push our limits to make our region a new engine of growth for Asia and the world and for our own people, to harness our individual aspirations for collective achievements and to define our future not by our limitations but by the unique capabilities each of us is endowed with.
You will not find India wanting in stepping up to this task.
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These are some of my thoughts.
I thank VIISAS for giving me this opportunity.
I wish you all a very stimulating and productive discussion over the rest of the day.
Thank you!
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