The dominant impulse of India’s Look East Policy (LEP) that was launched in 1992 was economic and cultural, the objective being to reintegrate India economically and culturally with our civilisational neighbours of South East (SE) Asia. In December 2012, the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit was held in New Delhi to signify two decades of India’s LEP. Growing trade ties have corresponded with the expansion of relationship in the areas of defence and security and thus the engagement which was primarily political and economic has acquired strategic content in the recent years. India and countries of South Asia share many threats and challenges especially in areas of non-conventional security. India and SE Asian nations have been strengthening their defence and security relationship both at bilateral and multilateral levels to address such threats. Defence cooperation with ASEAN members is geared primarily towards exchanges of high-level visits, strategic dialogues, port calls, training exchanges, joint exercises and provision of defence equipment. Prime Minster Manmohan Singh during his visit to Myanmar in April 2012 observed that both India and Myanmar need to “expand our security cooperation that is vital not only to maintain peace along our land borders but also to protect maritime trade which we hope will open up through the sea route between Kolkata and Sittwe.” India ramped up cooperation with Myanmar through high level visits by the Defence Minister AK Antony in January, 2013 and last year through the visit of chairman chiefs of staff committee and the Chief of Air Staff, ACM Norman Browne, from November 26 to 29. Myanmar army has been looking for hardware and India has been providing items such as transport aircraft, helicopters and other defence equipment. New Delhi is also focussed on expanding training and capacity building of the Myanmar armed forces. Further, Myanmar Navy has been regularly taking part in India’s Milan series of exercises since 2006. Malacca Straits is the pivotal transiting point through which most of the oil and gas transportation of India, Southeast and East Asian countries take place. Increasing incidence of piracy for ransom and smuggling in the high seas, which threatens uninterrupted transportation of oil and gas, has prompted these states to secure the sea lanes. Here cooperation with Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia to secure Malacca Straits and the neighbouring areas remains strategically important. Malacca Straits are important to both India and Indonesia and the two countries signed a Defence Cooperation Agreement in 2001 and have had regular defence exchanges including the exchange of high level visits, ship visits, officers studying in staff colleges in either country and joint coordinated patrols on the mouth of the Malacca Straits. Indonesian Navy ships have consistently participated in the Milan series of exercises conducted near the Andaman and Nicobar islands by the Indian Navy. Last October, Antony visited Indonesia to attend the first ministerial-level biennial defence dialogue between the two countries, where he observed “We have a vital stake in the evolution of balanced security and cooperation mechanisms through which we can build consensus and pursue dialogue. We seek to improve our partnership with all countries in the Indian Ocean region on bilateral basis as well as through multilateral fora like Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) and the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC).’’ India has also been supporting the freedom of navigation and United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) through South China Sea where some of the ASEAN countries are at the receiving end of China’s assertive policies. Further, as part of deepening its engagement with the SouthEast Asian countries through military to military relations, India has provided access to the Singapore armed forces to use Indian training facilities like air force and artillery firing ranges. Singapore has signed the Defence Cooperative Agreement in 2003 and a “bilateral agreement for the Conduct of Joint Military Training and Exercises in India”. Naval exercises between the two navies are being conducted annually since 1994; in 2011, exercises between the two were conducted in South China Sea and the shore phase of the exercise was conducted at the Changi Naval Base of Singapore. During Antony’s visit to Singapore in June this year, India and Singapore signed a fresh agreement to extend the use of training and exercise facilities in India by the Singapore Army for a further period of five years. Singapore is the only country to which India is offering such facilities.
