Kuala Lumpur,
May 16, 2001

I am very happy to be here in this prestigious institution to share some thoughts with you on the future of the India-ASEAN partnership. It is entirely appropriate that I do so on the soil of one of ASEAN’s most dynamic members, which also happens to be the country coordinator within ASEAN for its relations with India.

The theme of shared perspectives between India and ASEAN should be self-evident. History, geography, and economics have provided compelling logic for unity of purpose and action between us. Yet, roughly 50 years after India and the ASEAN countries attained their independence, we are discussing a subject, which should now have been accepted wisdom.

The most basic historical factor, which unites us is a civilisational bond formed from the strands of spiritualism, culture and commerce The cross-fertilization of our human experiences was not through conquest or domination, but through a meeting of minds Evidence of this confluence between India and Southeast Asia abounds in the art, architecture, language and culture of every ASEAN country.

We are conscious that in the first few decades after our independence, we did not attain the full promise of our relationship. Our cultural and civilizational bonds remained firm. But, the full scope of our partnership was constrained by divergences in economic ideology, political outlook and security assumptions, which the Cold War imposed on us.

Today, we can say with great satisfaction that these artificial wrinkles have been ironed out. We also have a number of additional objective factors, which assure us that the complementarities between us today are both stronger and more enduring.

The Cold War moulds have been broken, and this has enabled us to strengthen our links without ideological barriers. India became a sectoral dialogue partner of ASEAN in 1992, full dialogue partner in 1995, and member of the ASEAN Regional Forum in 1996.

Over the last few years, we in India have consciously focussed on rejuvenation of our ties with the countries of ASEAN. This came to be known as our "Look East" policy. But, even as we looked east, ASEAN moved west. The admission of new countries brought ASEAN literally to India’s doors. From a maritime neighbour, ASEAN became our close neighbour with a land border of nearly 1,600 kilometers This has added a new dimension to India-ASEAN relations.

Asian countries are today at the forefront of developing and introducing cutting edge technologies into their economies. We are in the very epicentre of the Knowledge Revolution. This provides us with a major opportunity to overcome our historical disabilities and to compress the time gap between successive levels of development. Each of our countries has achieved expertise and even dominance in certain areas of technology. It is crucial that we should cooperate in exploiting the synergies between us, rather than duplicating capacities or undercutting each other A link up between some of India’s software sectors with hardware capabilities of Southeast Asian countries is only one example. There should be many other possibilities, which we need to explore.

India is now launching the second generation of its economic reforms, seeking to reach the benefits of the new technologies and new opportunities of globalisation to its entire population. The immediate requirement for this is infrastructural support in the form of communications, roads, ports and power. These are areas of strength and expertise in the ASEAN countries and we look forward to their participation in these infrastructure projects in India.

The security of India and that of ASEAN are closely interlinked. We believe that a multi-polar world order would provide the best guarantee of equal security for all states. We respect the status of Southeast Asia as a nuclear Weapons Free Zone and, as a nuclear weapon state, we are willing convert this recognition in to a de jure commitment.

For decades after its independence, India has been campaigning for nuclear disarmament. Instead, much of the world went along with a discriminatory NPT, which preserved the right to nuclear weaponization of a few countries, even while keeping the rest in a permanently disarmed condition. The nuclear weapon states showed no intention of implementing Article VI of the treaty, which committed them to nuclear disarmament in a phased manner.

Unfortunately, non-nuclear states effectively connived with them by subscribing, in 1995, to an indefinite extension of this hopelessly flawed treaty. India had then to draw its own conclusions. Three years ago, we decided to conduct nuclear tests, based on an objective evaluation of our security environment, and to create for India the necessary strategic autonomy and space. In doing so, we did not violate any treaty, agreement or understanding to which we were party.

There is better understanding in the world today of our decision to maintain a minimum credible nuclear deterrent. We have declared a unilateral moratorium on underground explosive tests. We have a declared policy of no first use, and a commitment never to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states. We have proved that India is neither a proliferation threat nor an exporter of sensitive nuclear or missile technology. This cannot be said to be true of all parties to the NPT. Our approach is further underpinned by our abiding commitment to the goal of a nuclear weapon-free world.

We are conscious of the striving for a new security structure in the world, moving away from obsolete Cold War constructs. We are engaged in a process of dialogue and consultation with our friends and partners to help shape a new security environment free of confrontation and tension. Our security dialogue with ASEAN can also include this theme.

The nature of the Global Village has made it necessary to tackle even non-military issues of security in a comprehensive manner. Our region lies along side sea lanes of great strategic importance, which need to be protected. Poverty and shortages of food and energy threaten the stability of societies Population growth and the spread of diseases like AIDS and TB are factors of deep concern. Environmental degradation and cyber crime are relatively newer concerns.

There can be no effective solution to these problems within national boundaries. They have to be tackled through a cooperative approach, holistically and regionally. The security dialogue between India and ASEAN is therefore, of utmost importance.

Threats like religious extremism, drug trafficking, money laundering and terrorism have cast a dark shadow over our region. India has been a victim of state-sponsored and cross-border terrorism seeking to redraw national boundaries. Such violence in the name of holy war is a grave menace especially to pluralistic societies and endangers a peaceful and civilized global order.

India and ASEAN are on the same side of the socio-economic divide in the debate on globalization. Opening up our national economies to global markets cannot become a mantra at the cost of equitable development and social justice. The passion for rapid globalization should be tempered by compassion for its unintended victims.

The financial and economic crisis in this region in 1997 vividly demonstrated how volatile capital flows could threaten the very existence of even vibrant economies. The recovery process of various countries has also shown that external prescriptions for economic measures or the pace of reform do not necessarily guarantee economic recovery or political stability.

We need to draw appropriate lessons from these experiences so that developing economies do not remain vulnerable to destabilisation or stagnation from a headlong rush into globalization. During our discussions, Prime Minister Mahathir and I agreed on the urgent need for an early reform of the international financial architecture.

Eight months ago, speaking in the US Congress, I had proposed a global dialogue for development. This call was prompted by our concern that some of the most vital issues of development and poverty alleviation are in danger of getting marginalized in our hurry to introduce new regime in trade, investment and intellectual property. I believe such a dialogue should include in its ambit such impediments to development as the international financial architecture and the imposition of impossibly harsh timetables for globalization.

Our Economic engagement with ASEAN will also be based on these perspectives. We seek a dialogue bilaterally and multilaterally with countries of the region to harmonize our positions on key issues of development, trade and investment and environment.

Our outlook is entirely in harmony with the high-resolution road map of development priorities and regional integration, which was drawn up in the Hanoi Plan of Action and its Vision Twenty Twenty (2020). We follow the same logic in exploring the possible linkages between the ASEAN Free Trade Area and India to increase trade and investment flows in directions, which would promote growth and development.

Thus, we have an impressive catalogue of congruences in outlook and platform for joint action.,

India already has a fruitful annual dialogue with the European Union at the Summit level. We consider it in the mutual interest of both ASEAN and India that we have a similar institution. If we could intensify our interaction and synchronize our actions in world fora, we can together form a formidable force working for global peace and security, equitable economic development and social justice.

It is an ambitious agenda. But we have the collective strength to implement it. What we need is the political will and highest level commitment to a sincere, frank and comprehensive India-ASEAN dialogue This vision must also find a way to be expressed through instruments commensurate with its historic and grand sweep. My government stands ready to work towards the realization of this vision.