The recent resurgence in Indian exports is partly due to the economic recovery in East and Southeast Asia. Increased trade with this region had contributed substantially to the export boom of the mid-1990s. Equally, the economic crisis in the region hurt India's export performance over the last two years. With the region turning the corner, Indian exports have also started reviving. What happens in Asia to our East matters increasingly to us. Hence, it is a pity we are still not regarded worthy of an invitation to a high-powered meeting of "Asian" nations.
The "ASEAN Plus" meeting of 13 East Asian countries (Asean's 10 plus China, Japan and South Korea) held last week in Manila has set in motion, so claimed the host, President Joseph Estrada of the Philippines, the creation of "an East Asian common market, one East Asian currency, one East Asian community". President Estrada reportedly told his guests: "Let's face it, our future is intertwined with that of greater East Asia." That is a realisation which has not yet fully dawned on India's policy and opinion makers.
No doubt strategic policy analysts and senior officials in the external affairs ministry have begun to emphasise the economic and strategic importance of Asia to our east, but action on the ground does not suggest that we are doing much about it. Not surprisingly the Manila conclave received little attention in the Indian media. Admittedly the idea of an "East Asian Community", stretching all the way from Korea to Myanmar, is nascent if not untenable, perhaps its authors have motivations not yet fully shared by the people of the region, but economic inter-dependence is altering political relationships in East Asia. Many countries in the region have shared in each other's prosperity and pain. India still remains off-stage in the unfolding of a new "Asian drama".
This week's visit to India of the President of Viet Nam will hopefully remind New Delhi that it must impart a new dynamism to its "Look East" policy if it wants to win new friends and rejuvenate old relationships in the region. Consider the case of Viet Nam itself. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee may like reminding his guest that he expressed extreme displeasure in 1979 protesting against China's invasion of Viet Nam during the very week that he chose to visit Beijing to renew India-China relations for the first tim