ACT EAST
Our Prime Minister Modi is on a ten days’ visit to Myanmar, Fiji and Australia to work on his ‘Act East’ policy. I am sure Modi is interested to improve relations with neighboring countries and countries located in eastern sector of the globe. Modi will participate in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) in Myanmar and then take part in G-20 Summit that will provide him an opportunity to talk to more than top forty leaders of the world. I am also sure with his kind of vision Modi will be able to develop relation with many countries and will be able to improve diplomatic and business relations.
LOOK EAST
Actually, the then congress Prime Minister P.V. Narsimha Rao had started the plan to improve relations with eastern countries and that was worth praising as until then Indian relations were mainly revolving round western countries especially Russia, America, France, England and Germany that seriously neglected our attention towards eastern countries which were not only near us distant wise but culture wise too.
Our former Prime Minister Rao had a very good vision trying to improve relations with Asian countries especially in East Asia being similar in culture and geographically besides some of these Asian countries are developed financially and good relations with these countries could have opened the doors of economical improvement of our country.
There are many crucial factors which need to be kept in our plans to improve relations with eastern Asian countries as the area has several crucial waterways in this area, which are important in security and business improvement. Being one of the biggest nations in Indian Ocean India should share the responsibility of keeping peace and development in different sectors that is possible if we have cordial relations with countries like Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, Fiji, Malaysia, Australia, Japan, Vietnam, Korea and New Zealand etc.
Modi changed LOOK into ACT
Modi has Eastern countries in his mind from day one so he worked on his east based policies on priority basis. He immediately converted LOOK into ACT and acted fast by visiting different countries in the neighboring areas and inviting country heads from different eastern nations. His current visit to all these nations is part of the strategy that will bring wonderful results benefiting for our country in the long-run. The results of his Japan visit and Prime Minister of Vietnam have already begun to show. We can see remarkable improvements in business and other activities between these two countries with India. There is another strategically important point both these countries have no good relations with China which gives an important message to the world that India is ready to stand on a parallel platform in Asia competing for the top slot with China.
India has communicated the message to the world community that she is ready to lead Asia on equal terms with developed countries and no country can overlook her any more like they did in the past. Incidentally, our president Pranab Mukherjee was in Vietnam during visit of Chinese president discussing about oil extraction treaty from the sea that was objected by China later as the Chinese government feels the area where Vietnam and India are planning to extract the oil is within Chinese territory. But by not caring about Chinese claims or their objections India has made it clear that India does not care much for such fake claims of china that is one of the biggest changes in recent years. India in fact was behaving too hesitantly dealing with Chinese related issues and by signing this oil treaty with Vietnam India has made it clear that Indians are ready to face challenges coming from Chinese sides. India is no more concerned how China thinks about our relations with countries which are not in so called good books of China. As far our Prime Minister is concerned he is absolutely straight forward in his visions, for him Indian interests are on top of his priorities.
The Current tour of Prime Minister
The current tour of Modi brings new hopes for our country expecting a common platform shared by countries like India, Australia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Japan by making combined programs in the field of defense and economical developments that will help reduce the increasing Chinese pressure on different countries in this particular region. I am hundred percent sure there will be a detailed discussion on this topic in Australia during our PM’s stay in Australia and the dinner invitation in Brisbane by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Modi is indication of importance of Indo-Japanese friendship in this regard.
Role of India in ASEAN
India is looking forward at ASEAN meet in Nay Pyi Taw where our Prime Minister will be meeting different state heads of East Asian countries. The meeting will provide India a chance to show its role in the region. The important part of the meeting is presence of Barack Obama the president of the USA who thinks India especially Modi has an important role to play in the politics of this region. Obama, the president of strongest nation of the world considers Modi a man of action that believes in work rather than words.
Modi himself was very enthusiast while speaking in the ASEAN summit reassuring all the heads of countries from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam that India has already on the path of building new relations with all these countries for a better future of the region. If any of you watched him speak in the summit you might have noticed he also warned China indirectly regarding the dispute/possession of China on South China Sea that is one of the main reasons of dispute within the area for countries like Vietnam, Japan and Philippines in particular. Modi wants China to follow the water border rules as per international norms just the way countries follow the cross border rules in the air.
Conclusion
We should have no doubt that India can lead ASEAN movement taking all countries together and it’s so natural since most countries have similar cultures, religions, arts, cultures and most common the problems associated with being third world nations. We have already moved ahead few steps in this direction and the day is not far off when we shall be right on top in the able leadership of our ever so active Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
PS- I had submitted this article a couple of days before so it may read different in today's contest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narendra_Modi