1. Home
  2. ASEAN Summit: Is India serious about regional trade pact?

ASEAN Summit: Is India serious about regional trade pact?

Agencies
November 19, 2018

Singapore, Nov 19: If you were here in Singapore for the first time on a brief visit last week, you could be excused for wondering if it's normal for thousands of police officers to be patrolling the streets and for scores of Special Operations Command and other police vehicles to be parked all over the city. You may also be wondering if traffic is always really this bad.

Actually, no. Singapore is typically very safe and the police is usually not seen much. Neither will you hear sirens piercing the air every few minutes like in some other cities. And it's uncommon for traffic jams to occur.

Last week, besides the leaders of the 10 ASEAN countries, some of world's top leaders including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese Premier Li Keiqiang, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and United States Vice President Mike Pence were in Singapore for the ASEAN Summit. Hence, the stepped-up security.

The world leaders who came, see this as a fantastic and convenient opportunity to meet at the sidelines of the summit to discuss bilateral issues especially ahead of the APEC Summit which takes place in Papua New Guinea immediately after the ASEAN conference. For example, President Putin met with Japan PM Abe as well as Vice President Pence. President Putin's attendance also allowed him to project Russia's desire to be a global influencer and show their willingness to engage with the region especially in economic matters.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN is a regional intergovernmental organisation made up of 10 countries to promote and facilitate cooperation mainly in trade but also in security matters, education and culture integration and exchange. Meetings at various levels are held regularly with its secretariat located in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Together, ASEAN forms a market of US$2.6 trillion with a population of 622 million people. It is collectively the third largest economy in Asia after China and Japan and seventh largest in the world.

At the moment, the over-arching economic objective for the group is to achieve full economic integration by way of a single market fully connected with the global economy by 2025. Called the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), it is a free trade zone copying the European Union model loosely.

In his opening address as Chairman of ASEAN, a title and responsibility which rotates among the countries every year, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said: "The international order is at a turning point. The existing free, open and rules-based multilateral system which has underpinned ASEAN's growth and stability, has come under stress. Countries, including major powers, are resorting to unilateral actions and bilateral deals, and even explicitly repudiating multilateral approaches and institutions."

Unsurprisingly, global trade uncertainties was one of the key subjects discussed at the summit.

However, the main economic topic on the agenda was the Regional Economic Comprehensive Partnership (RCEP). Other than the ASEAN countries, this agreement brings together China, Japan South Korea and, also Australia, New Zealand and India.

If completed, the RCEP will be the largest such trade agreement since the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) which was implemented in 1948. It will encompass 25 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) of US$25 trillion, 45 per cent of the total population, 30 per cent of global income and 30 per cent of global trade. Many were expecting it to be wrapped up this year but at the summit it was announced that it will be delayed till 2019. Leaders at the summit, however, were quick to emphasise that negotiations are at its final stage.

The pact is seen as vital in securing the region's continued prosperity, especially after a trade war broke out between its vital trading partners, US and China.

Although Prime Minister Modi urged an early conclusion to RCEP talks, it is not clear at this stage what level of commitment India has in participating. The RCEP is a traditional trade pact which cuts tariffs on tradable goods whereas India's strength is in the services sector. India is believed to be holding up for better market access for its professionals and to the services sector than is currently offered.

India also complained that imports to India from ASEAN has grown faster than Indian exports to the bloc. New Delhi is reluctant to cut tariffs and open its markets in the face of strong opposition from its farming as well as steel and textiles industries. The dilemma facing India is exacerbated by the fact that strategic rival China is part of the agreement although China is an important trading partner as well.

On the other hand, ASEAN nations are increasingly investing in India, including in ports, highways, townships and food processing. It was noted at the summit that with the Modi government improving ease of doing business, investment and trade with ASEAN has grown. Despite good progress being made on the India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway with an extension to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, ASEAN has called for better maritime, air, land and digital connectivity between ASEAN and India.

With the Indian general elections expected next year, the RCEP negotiations come at a sensitive time for PM Modi.

India is the sixth largest trading partner of ASEAN having signed the India-ASEAN FTA (free trade agreement) in 2010 and bilateral trade is valued at US$80 billion but this is seen by economists as far short of its true potential.

PM Lee of Singapore urged India to be part of RCEP saying: "Together with the ASEAN-India Free Trade Area, we hope that this will help us reach the ASEAN-India trade target of US$200 billion in total trade by 2022."

If India can address its national interests through the on-going talks, the RCEP is a promising vehicle that can help a reluctant India which traditionally shies away from trade pacts, expands its markets through incorporation into a truly open trading bloc.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 28,2020

Washington, Mar 27: The United States has seen a record 18,000 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 345 deaths over the past 24 hours, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.

There are now 97,028 declared virus cases in the country and there have been 1,475 deaths, Johns Hopkins said.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 6,2020

Beijing, Mar 6: World health officials have warned that countries are not taking the coronavirus crisis seriously enough, as outbreaks surged across Europe and in the United States where medical workers sounded warnings over a "disturbing" lack of hospital preparedness.

The World Health Organization warned Thursday that a "long list" of countries were not showing "the level of political commitment" needed to "match the level of the threat we all face".

"This is not a drill," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

"This epidemic is a threat for every country, rich and poor."

Tedros called on the heads of government in every country to take charge of the response and "coordinate all sectors", rather than leaving it to health ministries.

What is needed, he said, is "aggressive preparedness."

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 26,2020

Apr 26: The remarkable story of an airman who overcame prejudice to become one of only a handful of Indian fighter pilots in the First World War has emerged in newly-released archive files by the UK's Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).

Lieutenant Shri Krishna Chanda Welinkar is one of the thousands of moving stories from the war preserved in family correspondence and being brought alive as part of a digitisation project.

The never-before-published files contain thousands of letters, pictures and other papers sent between the Commission and the next of the kin of First World War dead.

Among them is the story of Welinkar, who hailed from Bombay in colonial India. After much hardship and discrimination, he eventually became a pilot and went missing while on patrol over the skies above the Western Front in June 1918.

His family had to wait nearly three years before they finally knew for certain that he had died, and his grave was located.

“For everyone who died in the First World War, there was inevitably a partner, parent or child back home who had questions. The heartbreaking letters in CWGC's archive give us an insight into what it was like for those families trying to come to terms with their loss,” said Andrew Fetherston, chief archivist for CWGC.

“They are stories that show desperate searches for closure, former enemies uniting and, on many occasions, the sad realisation that a missing loved one would always remain so. We are pleased to be able to make this invaluable piece of World War history accessible to a new generation and help deepen our understanding of how the First World War impacted those who were left behind,” he said.

Welinkar was one of the 1.3 million Indians who answered the call to fight for the British Empire. Nearly 74,000 never saw their homeland again and are remembered today in cemeteries and memorials throughout the world, including France, Belgium, the Middle East and Africa.

Welinkar was a well-educated man studying at Cambridge University. He trained to become an aviator in Middlesex and wished to join the Royal Flying Corps, later known as the Royal Air Force.

Upon attempting to enlist, Welinkar encountered the same prejudices as his other fellow Indian airmen and was encouraged to become an air mechanic instead.

He was eventually given a commission in the Royal Flying Corps as an Officer. In 1918, he was posted to France and patrolled the skies above the Western Front.

In June 1918, Lieutenant Welinkar embarked on what would be his final patrol; he did not return and was reported missing. His fate remained unknown for many months afterwards.

The newly-released e-files chronicle the remarkable discovery of Welinkar and his final resting place long after the war had ended. Colonel Barton, who knew Welinkar, acted on behalf of his mother and helped find her missing son. They spoke to former enemies and honed their search to the grave of an unidentified man, buried by the Germans as “Oberleutnant S.C. Wumkar” in a grave in Rouvroy, Belgium.

The body was later moved and reinterred in Hangard Communal Cemetery Extension but it wasn't until the vital clue, found in the original German burial records in February 1921, that it was confirmed beyond doubt this grave was of Welinkar's.

In May 1921, Colonel Barton, on behalf of Welinkar's mother, requested that a Commission headstone be placed on the grave with the following personal inscription: “To the Honoured Memory of One of the Empire's Bravest Sons”.

This records – known as Enquiry Files – are part of a collection of nearly 3,000 files which have never been made available to the public before. Nearly half have been digitised so far, alongside a previously unreleased collection of more than 16,000 photographs held in negatives in the Commission's archive.

The files, internally referred to simply as E-Files, contain correspondence between the CWGC and the next of kin of the war dead. They often contain letters, typed memos between Commission staff and on occasion photos, maps and diagrams.

CWGC only holds an enquiry file for a small proportion of the 1.7 million people it commemorates from the Commonwealth. Today it is only possible to release those surviving records from the First World War because correspondence with families of Second World War casualties often involves people still alive today and cannot be made public for many years, due to the UK's data protection rules.

To date, more than 1,300 of the surviving 3,000 First World War enquiry files have been digitised.

The CWGC commemorates the 1.7 million Commonwealth servicemen and women who died during the two World Wars. It also holds and updates an extensive and accessible records archive, while operating over 23,000 locations in more than 150 countries and territories.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.