The "rapid emergence of China and India" as key players "will shift the strategic priorities of countries" in Asia and "shape the emerging framework for security cooperation in the region."
Outlining this political forecast at the Asia Security Summit, being organised here by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Friday that "India's economic revival will be another factor in Asia's regional architecture."
By P.S. Suryanarayana
SINGAPORE: The "rapid emergence of China and India" as key players "will shift the strategic priorities of countries" in Asia and "shape the emerging framework for security cooperation in the region."
Outlining this political forecast at the Asia Security Summit, being organised here by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Friday that "India's economic revival will be another factor in Asia's regional architecture."
The theme of one of the five plenary sessions during the three-day conference will be `India: A rising global player.' Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee is expected to set the tone. Participants include United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and defence ministers from several other countries.
Delivering the keynote address at the opening dinner, Mr. Lee said, "Within Asia, the trend is towards greater economic cooperation, and hence a stable, more secure regional order. China has become the largest trading partner of many Asian countries including Japan and South Korea, and the second largest trading partner of India. India started to reform and open up only in the 1990s, but it has made significant progress over the last dozen years and has strengthened its ties with the region. A complex web of economic linkages is stitching East Asia together."
Noting that "India's `Look East' policy will give India an interest in what happens in East Asia," he emphasised the region-wide importance of the Strategic and Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity that New Delhi and Beijing had already signed. "Both sides understand that they need peace to grow and prosper, and are engaging in strategic dialogue to address bilateral and regional issues."
Even in the present context of such China-India dynamics, "it is very much in Asia's interest for the United States to remain engaged in the region," Mr. Lee maintained. One of several reasons he cited to underline the continuing relevance of the U.S. as Asia's "partner" was that "American multinationals generate investments and jobs on a scale which Chinese and Indian companies cannot yet match."
Identifying "a revitalised Japan," the European Union and Russia as the other actors with the potential to "affect the outcome of Asia's transformation," Mr. Lee noted that Moscow, at one level, "has the military technology to shorten the learning curve of China and India."
Within this expanding pan-Asian matrix, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) "is non-threatening, enjoys good relations with all the major powers, and thus provides a neutral core around which to develop the regional architecture." To play "a central role" on the basis of such positives, the ASEAN "must be a strong and effective organisation, able to be a partner of China and India," Mr. Lee emphasised.
Answering questions from participants, Mr. Lee said the membership of the East Asia Summit "is settled for now." Australia, with "its links with the U.S.," and India, which had "its own links with the rest of the world," were part of this forum that was originally mooted by the ASEAN and its northeast Asian partners such as China and Japan, he noted.
