Manipur's Role in 'Look East' Policy is Significant

By Thingbaijam Dhamen
Kangla Online
August 16, 2008

Manipur must play a significant role in the government of India`s look east policy, said an article on India`s Look East Policy and Manipur contained in "Manipur Today", a journal of the state information and public relations department published on the occasion of the 62th Independence Day.

The article by Dr. A Rajmani Singh, department of commerce, Manipur University, Imphal says that Manipur being situated in the extreme corner of North East India bordering Myanmar on the east, must play a significant role of continental dimensions in government of India`s look east policy.

Since 1995, with opening up of trade with Myanmar, and active participation from the state as well as Central government the expected volume of trade was not achieved, the article said stating that of late India`s look east policy with ASEAN countries and second phase policy is on the pipeline.

With the participation of India in the East Asian Summit and from the level of interaction in the 4th India-ASEAN Summit, both held at Kuala Lumpur from 12-14 December 2005, it is seen that the Look-East policy is being pursued aggressively and has started yielding results on the economic and political fields.

This policy which was primarily directed towards improving relations with ASEAN had now been enlarged to cover other nations of the region such as China, Japan and Korea to facilitate more political and economic integration.

To recall Look-east policy was launched in 1992 just after the end of the cold war, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. After the start of liberalization, it was a very strategic policy decision taken by the government in the foreign policy.

To quote Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "it was also a strategic shift in India`s vision of the world and India`s place in the evolving global economy".

The policy was given an initial thrust with the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao visiting China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and Singapore and India becoming a important dialogue partner with ASEAN in 1992.

Since the beginning of this century, India has given a big push to this policy by becoming a summit level partner of ASEAN (2002) and getting involved in some regional initiatives such as the BIMSTEC and the Ganga Mekong Cooperation and now becoming a member of the East Asia Summit (EAS) in December, 2005.

India has extended a number of general and project-specific credit lines to Myanmar in the last few years. A number of agreements and MOUs, including the Tripartite Maritime Agreement between India, Myanmar and Thailand, the Border Trade Agreement and an agreement on Cooperation between Civilian Border Authorities, have been signed.

Indian companies are involved in oil and gas exploration in Myanmar. A feasibility study has been undertaken for a rail link between India and Myanmar.

India had upgraded the 160 km long Tamu-Kalewa-Kalemyo highway in 2001 and will be maintaining it for the next six years. There is an ongoing project for construction of a trilateral highway from Moreh in India to Mae Sot in Thailand to Bagan in Myanmar, the progress of which is being reviewed regularly by the foreign ministers of the three nations. True to Myanamar`s assurances, it has been launching operations against the Indian rebel groups such as NSCN (K) camping in its soil.

Now under the policy, the proposed 1400 km long projects for connecting India-Myanmar-Thailand Trans Asian Highway have been finalized by the respective governments of India, Myanmar and Thailand.

The Indian government had also given a green signal to extend railway link upto Imphal at the first phase and extend upto Myanmar in second phase to give another dimension to trade relationship with ASEAN countries.

Here, the role of the state government is very important, the writer of the article observed citing that once the proposed Trans-Asian highway and rail link from Delhi to Hanoi is completed, the trade relation between India and south east Asian countries will increase manifold.

"As and when the volume of trade will improve both opportunities and challenges will emerge specially for the people of Manipur in particular and India as a whole," the writer observed.

Since the process is on, the day is not far from now. So Manipur government should discuss the issue thoroughly and find out the challenges and bring up the matter to the government of India if necessary, it suggested.

"To attain this objective a strong will, firm commitment and bold decision making government or so called good governance is the need of the hour," it said.