Riding the Indo-Pacific Wave: India–ASEAN Partnership Sans RCEP

Angelina Gurunathan and Ravichandran Moorthy
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Angelina Gurunathan: Angelina Gurunathan is an Administrative and Diplomatic Officer with the Malaysian Government, pursuing her doctorate in Strategic and Security Studies at the National University of Malaysia (UKM). Prior to her sabbatical, she served at the Ministry of International Trade & Industry for nearly 14 years and her area of interest is the economic and security nexus of emerging economies with a particular focus on India and ASEAN.
Ravichandran Moorthy: Ravichandran Moorthy PhD, is an Associate Professor of International Relations & Strategic Studies at the Research Centre for History, Politics & International Affairs, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, National University of Malaysia (UKM). He teaches and researches on issues of international relations, ASEAN and Asia Pacific security.

India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs, 2021, vol. 77, issue 4, 560-578

Abstract: India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) partnership began in the early 1990s mainly in the economic domain. Reeling from a major internal crisis, India wanted to tap onto the region’s economic vibrancy to strengthen its own waning economy. Since then, amidst India’s domestic constraints, economic ties have largely sustained the India–ASEAN partnership on a steady course. India’s withdrawal from the ASEAN-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations in 2019, therefore, was an important inflection point in the partnership. This study, hence, discusses the prospects for the India–ASEAN partnership moving forward beyond the RCEP. This is undertaken by first examining the main challenges India faces with the ASEAN Free Trade Arrangement and the RCEP. After which, relevant developments pertaining to India’s multilateral partnership within the Indo-Pacific theatre as well as to India’s economic trajectory are deliberated in relation to ASEAN. Based on this analysis, this study argues that the outlook for India–ASEAN ties remains optimistic since the external and internal pressures needed for important economic reforms has not diminished for India. In addition, there are prospects for wider engagements with ASEAN due to Indo-Pacific-related strategic recalibrations in the region. Therefore, collectively these factors will provide crucial thrusts for the partnership to move forward strongly sans RCEP.

Keywords: ASEAN–India; RCEP; Indo-Pacific; regional economic integration; strategic partnership; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:indqtr:v:77:y:2021:i:4:p:560-578

DOI: 10.1177/09749284211047707

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