China In India S Post Cold War Engagement With Southeast Asia

This book examines the role of China in driving and sustaining India’s post-Cold War engagement with Southeast Asia. In doing so, it provides a unique insight into the regional dimensions of the Sino-Indian relationship. India launched its Look East Policy in the early 1990s as part of a concerted effort to revive the importance of Southeast Asia in the country’s foreign policy agenda. This study assesses the role of the China factor – defined here as China’s regional role, which has been interpreted through the prism of the Sino-Indian relationship – in the inception and evolution of the policy. More specifically, it establishes the extent to which China has been raised as a priority in discourses of India’s Look East Policy and how this has varied over time from the origins of the policy through to the most recent phase of the renamed Act East Policy. Addressing the distinction between what policymakers signal in their official statements and their true or underlying motivations, the book alludes to the fact that government officials may not always reflect true intentions in their official statements, and it is often what is not said that may reveal more about their real motivations. This is particularly relevant in the context of the Sino-Indian relationship where diplomatic rhetoric often masks more competitive and confrontational aspects of the bilateral relationship. An important analysis of the interplay between India’s relations with Southeast Asia and China, this book will be of interest to academics, policymakers and students in the fields of International Relations, Asian Security, Southeast Asian politics, and in particular, Indian foreign policy, the Sino-Indian relationship, and India’s Look East/Act East Policy.

Geography has moulded Singapore's self-definition, much as it has shaped the contours of the rest of Southeast Asia, a region that lies south of China and east of India. Placed within overlapping Sinic and Indic zones, Singapore's entrepôt role has served both. Today, as China and India emerge simultaneously as rising powers, a port city is going beyond its trading role to engage them in political and security terms. This book combines diplomatic history and international relations theory to show how Singapore is facilitating China's and India's engagement of Southeast Asia.

Content India Security Building InThe New Century China And India: TheoriesOf Development India’s Security Policy India ASEAN Relations Perspectives On The RiseOf China Major Concerns In China’s ASEAN Policy China’s Efforts As A Responsible Power China In Postcold War Asia China’s New Security Concept And Asia Chinese Nationalism And Its Foreign Policy

India Turns East tells the story of India's long and difficult journey to reclaim its status in a rapidly changing Asian environment increasingly shaped by the US-China rivalry and the uncertainties of US commitment to Asia's security. The Look East policy initially aimed at reconnecting India with Asia's economic globalisation. As China became more assertive, Look East rapidly evolved into a comprehensive strategy with political and military dimensions. Frédéric Grare argues that, despite this rapprochement, the congruence of Indian and US objectives regarding China is not absolute. The two countries share similar concerns, but differ in their tactics as well as their thoughts about the role China should play in the emerging regional architecture. Moreover, though bilateral US policies are usually perceived positively in New Delhi, paradoxically, the multilateral dimensions of the US Rebalance to Asia policy sometimes pushes New Delhi closer to Beijing's positions than to Washington's. This important new book explores some of the possible ways out of India's 'Eastern' dilemma.

There is a growing dialogue between India and Southeast Asia. From a marginal relationship during the Cold War days to the participation of India at the East Asia summit in December 2005 has been a long journey. In the context of the geopolitical situation in the Asia-Pacific in the post-September 11 period, the security dimension between India and Southeast Asia cannot be overemphasized. With the continued U.S. preponderance in the region and China's phenomenal rise, the countries of Southeast Asia and India have an opportunity to evolve a co-operative relationship not only with one another, but also with the major powers of the region. This book examines the areas of comprehensive security and the growing understanding between India and Southeast Asia where there is less divergence and greater convergence. The author argues that India-Southeast Asia security convergence is not and should not be aimed at any particular country. On an optimistic note he concludes that such convergence will contribute to creating harmony among the major powers of Asia to make the twenty-first century the "Asian century."

This volume will explore the role of India and China in regional geopolitics, with a focus on Southeast Asia. It highlights some of the key events and turning points in the evolving equations since the times of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indias first prime minister. In six chapters, it shows how Indias prominent position in devising the regional architecture in Asia was diluted after the Bandung era, especially after the Indo-China war in 1962. The author maintains that, relative to its earlier status as a major champion of Asian regionalism, India had become a political and diplomatic non-entity, if not a pariah, in Southeast Asia by the 1980s. While China emerged as the most important political entity in the region over the next three decades, India gradually made substantial inroads into the ASEAN scene, more so after its emergence as a 'rising' power in the post-Cold War era and economic reforms of 1991. 00This book revisits the question of contemporary Asian security from an Indian vantage point, posing critical questions about the future of regional leadership in Southeast Asia, and demonstrating how it depends as much on the India-China-Southeast Asia relationship as on China-US-Japan relations.