Page 94 - AEI Insights 2018 Vol 4 Issue 1

AEI Insights, Vol 4, Issue 1, 2018

S.No. Institutions Date of Joining
Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum (EAMF)
11. 2012
membership
12. India-ASEAN Strategic Partnership 2012
ASEAN-India Trade in Services and Investment
13. September 8, 2014
Agreements (signed)
ASEAN-India Trade in Services and Investment
14. July 1, 2015
Agreements (entered into force)
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
15. 2012
(negotiation state, yet to be finalised) negotiation partner
Source: Compiled by the author, based on various government sources

ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)

ARF was the first regional grouping formed under the ASEAN umbrella. It was set up in 1994
as a dialogue mechanism for deliberations on regional security issues. In 1995, the ARF agreed
to an evolutionary approach to effectively tackle security issues and adopted a 3-stage process
namely, first stage – Confidence Building Measures (CBMs); second stage – development of
preventive diplomacy; and third stage – elaboration of approaches to conflicts (Ministry of
External Affairs, Government of India, 2012). ARF, till date, is the largest grouping in terms
of total number of members in an ASEAN driven regional body. It has 27 member states
including the ten ASEAN member countries (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam); the ten ASEAN Dialogue
Partners (Australia, Canada, China, European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand,
Russia, and the United States of America); and seven other countries, namely, Bangladesh,
North Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and Sri Lanka.

India became a member of ARF in 1996. Highlighting the importance of ARF, the Ministry of
External Affairs states (2012), “India’s participation in the ARF demonstrates its increasing
engagement in the Asia-Pacific region, both in the politico-security and economic spheres and
underlines our commitment to the objective of sustaining regional peace and stability. Its
participation is consistent with our “Look East” policy, and development of closer links with
the ASEAN as a full-dialogue partner. The ARF provides a venue for constructive dialogue on
political and security cooperation in the region, with the ASEAN continuing to play a central
role in the process” (Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, 2012).

However, criticising ARF for its waning influence, Professor G.V.C. Naidu (2000) states, “As
far as the ARF and security of the Asia Pacific is concerned, except the initial enthusiasm to
join the multilateral process so that it would not be left out of the developments of this
important region, there does not seem to be much deliberation or thinking that has gone into
the whole process of multilateral Institutionalism and its role in the future”. While it is true that
ARF has not proved itself to be an effective forum for dealing with the major security
challenges, it, nonetheless, provides an important multilateral platform for deliberations on
issues of regional importance with India as one of its key members.

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