India is looking at smaller geographies which are more important in the scale of things now in the backdrop of recent tensions in various geographies.
Shruti Pandalai, a Fellow at the Delhi based Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses says that no country- big or small is beyond India’s outreach.
She said, “It also tells you how India’s agenda has expanded.”
Shruti who works with the South East Asia and Oceania Centre, MPIDSA, made this point in a conversation with The Gist on Strat News Global.
While explaining PM Modi’s decision to visit Brunei Darussalam and Singapore, Shruti said, “The larger context is that India is renewing its commitment to ASEAN.’’
She said that India’s position is very clear. “No country big or small will be discriminated in terms of agenda for India’s outreach.’’
“It also tells you how India’s agenda has expanded whether it is countries in Latin America or countries in the Pacific.’’
She said that India is giving renewed importance to these countries.
Shruti says that while there is a level of symbolism is the Brunei visit, one must also be mindful of the fact that it is an Islamic country.
“The fact that the chancery is talking about imbibing some syncretic traditions tells you also about the image India wants to portray in a polarized environment.’’
Prime Minister Modi is now wrapping up his visit to Brunei and Singapore.
This scholar is convinced that Modi’s visit to these two countries is a message of reaffirmation of India’s Act East policy being followed now for almost 10 years?
Looking at the agreements that India and Singapore have reached on developing a semiconductor cluster, she drew attention to the fact that Singapore accounts for 10 per cent of the global semi-conductor output.
She made a special reference to how a Singaporean real estate company decided during PM Modi’s ongoing visit its decision to double its investment in India to 14.8 billion.
“This is quite a massive figure and tell you that talks went well.’’
Shruti added that it also shows the confidence of Singaporeans in India’s growth story.
She said that Singapore is also trying to diversify their relationships to bet on what they see as the next big thing.
“Singapore is a small but smart nation. It has also managed super power rivalry for a long time.’’
“Under the current administration of Prime Minister Wong, I do think that the constituency of Friends of India is certainly on the uphill,” she added.
