The fact that India has signed a trade liberalization pact with South Korea this week might be more important than the specific contents of the agreement. India’s Asian well-wishers hope that in acting quickly on the Korean deal, the UPA government is signalling a strong commitment to East Asian regionalism.

Amidst the prolonged and tortuous negotiations on the free trade agreement with the ASEAN, there has been a growing perception in East and Southeast Asia that India is not serious about building a sustainable economic partnership with the region.

While our Foreign Office drafts fine speeches on India’s ‘ancient civilizational links’ with Asia, and our chattering classes talk incessantly about Delhi’s ‘central role’ in modern Asia, much of the region thinks India has only words to offer. Even those who backed India’s entry into Pacific Asian forums earlier in this decade now feel despondent.

For example, during 2004-05, Japan, Singapore Indonesia insisted on the Indian membership of the East Asia Summit (EAS) and overcame Beijing’s stiff opposition to Delhi’s membership of the Asian project of regional integration.

In retrospect China’s anxieties about India’s rising profile in East Asia seem excessive. There was no reason for Beijing to stop India if Delhi was determined to trip itself up in Asia.

Although Delhi has joined the East Asian process, domestic political considerations have prevented it from seizing the opportunities that have come its way. India is now is the only major regional power that has not signed a free trade agreement with the ASEAN.

... contd.