Involve India, China for Asean growth: Malaysian PM

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak today said the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) would not need to choose between India and China.

“Asean is located in between two great civilisations, China and India. And both these two countries, as part of the Asean architecture, the Asean +3 and the East Asia Summit, are quite happy to accept Asean as the centrality in the whole process,” Najib said while replying to a question at the opening of the International Institute for Strategic Studies Asian Security Summit: The Shangri La Dialogue.

“Both these two countries want to engage constructively with Asean and (are) looking into ways and means of increasing their trade, investment and other forms of exchanges with the Asean countries. In short, I am quite optimistic that we can develop a meaningful and constructive relationship with both India and China.”

Asean, comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam, has been central to India’s ‘Look East’ policy. An Indo-Asean Free Trade Agreement is already operational since last year, though a deal in services and investment is yet to be completed. The agreement is targeting to reach $70 billion in trade by 2012.

On the other hand, there is also a Sino-Asean Free Trade Area, which came into force at the beginning of last year. and comprises the largest free trade area in terms of population. China is Asean’s biggest trading partner and two-way trade is set to reach $500 billion by 2015.

“I believe Asean can engage with China and India in a very constructive way and if you look at the facts and figures, especially trade and investment, they are rising at a very impressive rate. And if we continue on that trajectory, then our economies would be further integrated and so would our people. That is one of the important building blocks towards peace and security,” said Najib.

The summit is likely to discuss the rise of Chinese military influence in the face of US presence in the Asia Pacific as a key issue. Najib called for a new multilateralism to deal with a “new set of asymmetric and non-traditional security challenges” that “cannot be resolved in isolation or through the old security structures of the past”.

He implored the international community, including the United States, to reassess their alarmist view of China’s growing military capacity. “The rise of China will be a benign influence. It is a mistake to see it as an adversary.”