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Look-East policy “is not a strategy to counter China”

SINGAPORE: India and Singapore held their inaugural round of “strategic dialogue” in a political ambience of “problem-free” ties. Concluding the session on Tuesday, they exuded optimism that the City-State would stay as the “hub” for India’s engagement with entire East Asia.

New Delhi’s Look-East policy was also seen by both delegations as “an India-centred and an India-driven movement” for economic objectives and not as a strategy to counter China in this region.

These and other aspects of the feel-good dialogue were later spelt out at a media conference by Tommy Koh and Satinder Kumar Lambah, who co-chaired the session, and India’s High Commissioner to Singapore S. Jaishankar, besides the Chief Mentor of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Tarun Das. Also present was Gopinath Pillai, Chairman of the Singapore-based Institute of South Asian Studies.

Mr. Lambah said: “It was a comparatively difficult dialogue, for the reason that it is a problem-free relationship. Our job was to sustain and further deepen this relationship. It is a very happy picture: trade of S$24 billion, 3000 Indian companies [in Singapore], and over 200 weekly flights [linking the City-State and] 12 Indian cities. [And] Singapore is the third or fourth largest FDI-investor in India. It was agreed that there is potential for further increases, particularly in areas of trade, human resources, defence cooperation, tourism, investment, and NGO cooperation. [In the end, the talks] really had become very easy, because of smooth functioning [of this process].”

Mr. Lambah, Prime Minister’s Special Envoy, said: “Today, China’s trade with Singapore is $48 billion; and India’s trade with China, only $1billion a few years ago, today exceeded the target of $40 billion. We also discussed that there is no competition between India and China and, as the Prime Minister has said, there is enough space for both.”

Answering questions on the China factor in New Delhi’s engagement with the City-State, Mr. Tommy Koh, Singapore’s Ambassador-at-Large, said: “The rise of China and India in the world economy is a boon, not just for the Chinese and Indian people but also for China’s neighbours and India’s neighbours. The rise is not a zero-sum game. For China and India to be prosperous, to be self-confident is also a stabilising factor in the geostrategic landscape of Asia. [And] the relationship between India and China is not adversarial — it is partly cooperative, partly competitive. I don’t think that India’s Look-East policy was intended by India as a counterweight to China; it is for India’s own purposes. Singapore wants to play a helpful role in bringing China and India closer together; and Singapore is a happy meeting place for Indian and Chinese businesses.”

Describing the India-Singapore engagement as “well-rounded,” Dr. Jaishankar emphasised that India did not fashion its Look-East policy as “a reaction to China’s charm offensive” in this region.

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Look-East policy “is not a strategy to counter China”

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