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

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.