Page 96 - AEI Insights 2018 Vol 4 Issue 1

AEI Insights, Vol 4, Issue 1, 2018

in March, 2016 at the Aundh military station at the headquarters of the southern command of
the Indian Army at Pune. The Exercise Force 18 was themed around ‘Humanitarian mine
action’ and ‘peacekeeping operations’ (Mishra, R. 2016). Later, India participated in the
ADMM Plus Exercise on Maritime Security and Counter Terrorism at Brunei and Singapore
in May 2016. In consonance with its Act East Policy and Indian Navy’s constant endeavour to
enhance maritime security in the Indo-Pacific, Indian Naval Ship (INS) Airavat arrived at
Brunei for the exercise (Public Information Bureau, 2016).

Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum (EAMF)

As the name itself suggests, the Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum (EAMF) owes its origin
to the ASEAN Maritime Forum. The first AMM meeting was held on July 28-29, 2010 in
Surabaya, Indonesia. Comprising the ten ASEAN member countries and their dialogue partners
(all members of the EAS), the EAMF is a Track 1.5 dialogue mechanism. The first EAMF was
held in Manila, Philippines on October 5, 2012. The EAMF was convened in response to the
statement of the ASEAN and EAS leaders who encouraged a “dialogue involving EAS
participating countries to utilize opportunities and address common challenges on maritime
issues building upon the existing ASEAN Maritime Forum (AMF),” (ASEAN Maritime Forum,
2017), wherein they also “positively noted the proposal of convening an expanded AMF, back-
to-back with the future meetings of the AMF, to include countries in the wider East Asia
region” (ASEAN Maritime Forum, 2017). So far, five EAMF have taken place including the
last EAMF meeting, which was organised in Jakarta, Indonesia in December 2017.

Economic Ties: Free Trade Agreements and Beyond

One of the major objectives of the Look East Policy was to strengthen economic ties with the
ASEAN member states. According to Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India
(2017), ASEAN is India’s fourth largest trading partner today, accounting for 10.2 percent of
India’s total trade, whereas India is ASEAN’s seventh largest trading partner. Between “1993
and 2003, ASEAN-India bilateral trade grew at an annual rate of 11.2 per cent, from US$ 2.9
billion in 1993 to US$ 12.1 billion in 2003. At the tenth ASEAN-India Summit in November
2012, the Leaders set the target of US$100 billion by 2015 for ASEAN- India merchandise
trade. In 2015, however, the total merchandise trade only reached US$ 58.7 billion, decreasing
by 13.29 per cent from that of the previous year of US$67.7 billion. During the same period,
foreign direct investments (FDI) from India increased significantly by 164 per cent from
US$606 million in 2014 to US$1.6 billion in 2015” (Ministry of External Affairs, Government
of India, 2017). It is widely believed that full implementation of the FTA in goods between
India and the ASEAN bloc will help boost trade between India and ASEAN (Economic Times,
2018).

India is a huge source of tourism for the ASEAN region. In 2015 alone, 3.3 million Indian
tourists visited ASEAN, which showed an increase of 6.5 per cent from 3.1 million in 2014
(ASEAN Tourism Statistics Dashboard, 2017). The ASEAN-India Agreement on Trade in
Service and Investments, to be initially implemented between seven ASEAN states and India,
entered into force on July 1, 2015 after a hiatus of almost a decade. The FTA in services is
definitely a step forward on promoting trade and economic cooperation through better linking

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