The Hindu : Front Page : A lot is at stake for India in East Asia: Lee

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 19, 2007
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A lot is at stake for India in East Asia: Lee

P. S. Suryanarayana

PHOTO: AFP

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.—

SINGAPORE: The East Asia Summit (EAS) will look forward to what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has to say on key issues on its agenda such as climate change, environmental sustainability, energy security and Myanmar. EAS Chairman and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong struck this emphatic note in an interview to The Hindu even as leaders are geared up for the summit meeting on November 21.

On the evolving political scenario over India’s civilian nuclear energy deal with the United States, he said: “Everybody will be aware of what has happened [but] … I don’t think it’s an issue” for the EAS.

A relatively new forum, the EAS links India with China, Japan, and a number of other Asia-Pacific countries. With the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) as the nucleus, it was launched in 2005.

Mr. Lee said the EAS “is the forum through which India is able to engage important partners and be at the table” in a region which is widely expected to be the next big theatre in global politics.

India is still not a member of the major Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. In a reflective frame of mind and answering questions in a relaxed fashion at his office, he said “a lot is at stake” for India in its engagement with the ASEAN. While the ASEAN “is [currently] at the centre of the regional cooperation architecture of the Asia-Pacific region,” the EAS “is one of the ingredients” for a framework of the future. Asked if the EAS, with the U.S. not in it, could think of a creative project of ensuring security along the Straits of Malacca and thereby address the America-related sensitivities of some littoral States, he said the forum was not ready for “tangible security projects on the ground yet.”

Mr. Lee was optimistic about further prospects in Singapore-India ties, now marked by “a new dimension” of defence cooperation and preference of Indian firms to flock to the city-state for a regional base.

‘For Southeast Asia, to have India as a partner is a tremendous plus

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