Strengthening India-ASEAN Maritime Cooperation
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Strengthening India-ASEAN Maritime Cooperation Strengthening India-ASEAN Maritime Cooperation Proceedings of the 10th Delhi Dialogue 19-20 July, 2018, New Delhi Strengthening India-ASEAN Maritime Cooperation 3 Contents Foreword by Chairman, RIS v Preface by Director General, RIS vii Acknowledgements ix List of Abbreviations xi Summary of Delhi Dialogue 1 Key Recommendations 19 Agenda of Delhi Dialogue 27 Concept Note of Delhi Dialogue 43 Keynote Address Delivered by the External Affairs 51 Minister of India Addresses Delivered at Delhi Dialogue 59 Transcripts of Papers Presented 109 List of Participants 161 Resumes of Speakers 173 Glimpses of Delhi Dialogue 211 ISBN: 81-7122-152-1 © RIS and AIC Published in 2019 by: Core IV-B, Fourth Floor, India Habitat Centre Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110 003, India Tel.: +91-11-2468 2177-80, Fax: +91-11-2468 2173-74 E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Website: www.ris.org.in; http://aic.ris.org.in Foreword Ambassador (Dr.) Mohan Kumar Chairman, RIS It is by now a truism that India’s relationship with ASEAN is one of the fundamental aspects of its foreign policy and lies at the core of our Act East Policy. The Delhi Dialogue, which is an annual Track 1.5 forum, provides an opportunity to discuss the full gamut of issues between India and ASEAN. The tenth edition of the Delhi Dialogue held in 19-20 July 2018 focused on the theme of strengthening India-ASEAN maritime cooperation. The maritime domain is of enormous significance for both India and ASEAN. As major trading partners, it is in the fundamental interest of both India and ASEAN that there must be a rules-based maritime order in the ocean. It was agreed that India and ASEAN should jointly deal with traditional and non-traditional threats posed to maritime cooperation. Yet another feature of the tenth edition of Delhi Dialogue was the role of India’s North East in the Act East Policy, and in this context, look at ways and means at forging connectivity with ASEAN. The tenth edition of Delhi Dialogue had this novel feature that a Roundtable on the above subject was organized with the participation of the Chief Ministers of North East India. Concrete proposals such as development of new airports in North East, completing connectivity projects and new projects involving ropeways and cable cars were discussed in some detail. The tenth edition of Delhi Dialogue also looked at strengthening India-ASEAN ties in the fields of trade, investment, technology, SMEs, e-commerce and tourism. All these ideas and proposals are worthy of note and further discussion with a view to expeditious implementation. The deliberations of the tenth edition of Delhi Dialogue under the overarching theme of “Strengthening of India-ASEAN Maritime Cooperation” are invaluable and will provide useful inputs for an excellent framework for future cooperation between India and ASEAN. Mohan Kumar Strengthening India-ASEAN Maritime Cooperation v Preface Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi Director General, RIS As is well known, RIS since early 1990s has been engaging in providing vital evidence-based research inputs for strengthening ASEAN-India economic integration. The ASEAN-India Centre set up, at RIS in 2013, has further been engaged in exploring various facets of ASEAN-India economic cooperation and deepening historical linkages in the context of India’s ‘Act East Policy’. The Delhi Dialogue was initiated at Tack 1.5 in 2009 to discuss all aspects of ASEAN-India partnership and find ways and means to strengthen it. It involves participation of policy markers, business and industry circles, diplomatic community, think tanks and members from academia to deliberate on various facets of ASEAN-India relationship. So far Ten Editions of the Delhi Dialogue have taken place. The theme of the Tenth Delhi Dialogue was “Strengthening India-ASEAN Maritime Cooperation” and it took place on 19-20 July 2019. It was organised jointly by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India; RIS; AIC at RIS; National Maritime Foundation (NMF), New Delhi; ASEAN Secretariat; Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA). The agenda of the Tenth Delhi Dialogue programme had the following important themes: Roundtable with Chief Ministers of North-East India, Role of North East in Act East Policy with ASEAN, Strengthening Socio-Cultural Links, India-ASEAN Partnership and Emerging Global Order, Development Cooperation: Strengthening the ASEAN-India Partnership, Maritime Cooperation: A New Framework for India- ASEAN Partnership, ASEAN-India Trade, Investment and Technology, Development Cooperation, SMEs and Regional Development, E-commerce and Digital connectivity, Tourism Cooperation and Building Smart Cities. The focus of the deliberations was on strengthening India’s ancient links with South East and East Asian countries and providing them added momentum and push, based on deepening linkages across the ‘Three Cs’: Culture, Commerce and Connectivity. Eminent experts also presented papers on different aspects of these themes. Strengthening India-ASEAN Maritime Cooperation vii The issues that were highlighted in the course of discussion included, among others: latest initiatives like regional connectivity schemes; Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project; speeding up the function of Land Custom Station at Zokhawthar in Champhai (Mizoram); operationalising of Sabroom-Chittagong connectivity; opening up of both road and rail routes; India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway; venturing into untapped areas of investment and industrial development in the North East; setting up of international universities; taking further the history of peace between India and South East Asia; mitigating rise of new trade protectionism to shape the global order to mark it as Asia’s century; looking at India as a new Global Value Chain Partner; importance of the health of ocean for sustainable maritime development; rules-based order and need to respect UN Convention of Laws of the Seas; identifying priority areas for working together for development cooperation; widening the Indo-Pacific collaboration; role of Indian Diaspora in promoting economic, social and cultural ties between ASEAN and India; scope and opportunities for stronger cooperation in SMEs and capacity building to promote entrepreneurship in the region; enabling digital connectivity between India and ASEAN; enhancing air connectivity for promoting tourism; and importance of policy initiatives as Swatch Bharat and Housing for All in building smart cities network in India and ASEAN. Accordingly, key recommendations have emerged that provide roadmap for strengthening all possible aspects of social, economic and cultural dimensions of ASEAN-India partnership. It also needs to be underlined here that during the intensive discussion at the Dialogue, it was also strongly reiterated that the North Eastern Region of India is the centre of gravity for strengthening ASEAN-India connectivity. We will remain grateful to Smt. Sushma Swaraj, the then Minister of External Affairs of India, for her encouragement and guidance for successful organising of the Delhi Dialogue X. The support received from Ambassador Preeti Saran, the then Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs and Dr Mohan Kumar, Chairman, RIS is duly acknowledged. The present Report, prepared by the AIC at RIS team led by Dr Prabir De, would definitely be found useful by all stakeholders who are actively associated with the process of deepening ASEAN-India economic cooperation. I also thank RIS Publication team for bringing out the Report well in time. Sachin Chaturvedi viii Strengthening India-ASEAN Maritime Cooperation Acknowledgments The proceedings of the Delhi Dialogue X entitled “Strengthening India- ASEAN Maritime Cooperation” has been prepared by Dr. Prabir De, Coordinator, ASEAN-India Centre (AIC), Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) with the assistance of Dr. Durairaj Kumarasamy, Consultant, AIC at RIS and Ms. Sreya Pan, Research Associate, AIC at RIS. We gratefully acknowledge the support extended by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India in organising the Delhi Dialogue X (DDX). In particular, we are grateful to Mr Anurag Bhusan, the then Joint Secretary (ASEAN ML), MEA; Mr Vikram Doraiswami, Joint Secretary (BM&IP), MEA; Col. Sandeep Puri, the then Director (ASEAN ML), MEA; Mr Madan Sethi, the then Dy. Secretary (ASEAN ML), MEA; Ms. Shashwati Arya, the then Under Secretary ASEAN ML) and Mr Pramod Bajaj, Consultant (ASEN ML), MEA for their assistance in organising the DDX. We are equally thankful to the Indian Mission to ASEAN, Jakarta; ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta; Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Jakarta; National Maritime Foundation (NMF), New Delhi; and the ASEAN-India Business Council (AIBC), both Delhi and Kuala Lumpur chapters, for their cooperation in organising the Delhi Dialogue X. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the participants in the DDX – invited speakers, presenters, chairpersons, sponsors, and audience alike. We are grateful to Dr Mohan Kumar, Chairman, RIS and Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General, RIS for their cooperation. The DD X benefitted from work done in support by the RIS Faculty and Administration. Mr. Tish Kumar Malhotra coordinated the production of the Proceedings and Mr. Sachin Singhal designed the Proceedings. Views expressed in the proceedings are those of the participants of the DDX and not the views of the Governments of India or ASEAN