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India and ASEAN: The 'masala bumbu' effect
The India-ASEAN engine in the socio-cultural pillar is steady and well maintained. Indonesia should have an alternating Ramayana festival with India biennially to keep up our traditions and encourage innovation in dance forms and interpretation.
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A quiet place: The interior of the Taj-ul-Masajid grand mosque in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. (JP/Sebastian Partogi)
I
ndia and ASEAN got together to mark their 25th anniversary along with ASEAN’s 50th when the ASEAN leaders honored New Delhi with their collective presence. The India-ASEAN Commemorative Summit on Jan. 2425 was also the 15th anniversary of the Dialogue Partnership and the 5th of the Strategic Partnership which was launched at the 20th Commemoration in 2012.
It was significant that for the very first time all 10 ASEAN leaders were guests of honor at the Republic Day parade on Jan. 26. Never before did the event have more than two leaders attend in a single year. This picture of good neighborliness and common posture was not lost on the world.
Since ASEAN dialogue partnerships with most partners started around the same time, many countries have such summits. Except for a few, others have opted for functional meetings around the annual summits, such as the East Asia Summit (EAS). India and ASEAN chose to have a very public celebration this time.
The summit had over 50 parallel events held in India and in ASEAN countries. The recent ones included the Ramayana Festival, the Youth Awards, the Startups Hackathon, the business summit and the like. In all these Indonesia was visibly present.
The business summit saw the participation of a large Indonesian business team led by the trade minister. This was effective and visible and showed that India and Indonesia took each other seriously.
Bilateral meetings were held between President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with the trade ministers. From the Indian point of view, there is a sense that Indonesia better appreciates India’s role vis-à-vis ASEAN and is willing to play a more active role to accentuate this engagement by intensifying their bilateral relationship with India. Discussions on the Indo-Pacific, trade and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) all seem to be in the right direction.
These were preceded by the fulfillment in recent months of the many India-Indonesia interactions that were envisaged several years ago but did not happen annually. The trade ministers’ dialogue, the visit of the defense minister and his participation at the Raisina Dialogue, the Energy Forum and the Joint Commission between both foreign ministers have all finally taken place.
