ASEAN

COVID-19 has widely affected global supply and value chains, and specific sectors around the world. In this scenario, the options for India to optimise its regional and global value chain linkages with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership are examined, which in turn could aid in its post-pandemic recovery.

Three decades have passed since the inception of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. It still is virtually a non-starter and has not addressed any substantive issue. Intra-regional trade is minuscule. India and Pakistan show little interest in the organisation. Without judging their respective foreign policies, it is argued that South Asian regionalism is not on their agenda. Three questions arise: Is South Asia at all a region? How much does the strategic divide between India and Pakistan, with China factored in, come in the way of South Asian regionalism? Why should India bother about regionalism when its policy of bilateralism serves it fine? To probe these, the region's history, global perceptions of the region, India's foreign and educational practices, and interstate relationships are discussed.

While in the long run south-east Asia will benefit from a prosperous and economically strong and stable large neighbour, the issues tend to be more complex in the short and medium terms. South-east Asian countries have hitherto been able to adjust to China's initial opening up between 1990 and 1997 fairly successfully. However, the crisis of confidence following the regional crisis of 1997-98 and loss of forward momentum with regard to regional integration among ASEAN members and a feeling of vulnerability to an increasingly volatile global economy are some of the reasons for heightened concerns about the economic ascendancy of China.