Mutual Perception Crucial for Regional Cooperation in South Asia: Antony

October 30, 2013

New Delhi: With 80 per cent of the regional GDP and 70 per cent of South Asia’s population, “India has an important role to play in making regional cooperation possible”, said Defence Minister, Shri AK Antony in New Delhi today. Shri Antony was inaugurating the 7th South Asia Conference on ‘India & South Asia: Exploring Regional Perceptions’ organised by The Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) on October 30-31, 12013.

Terming South Asia as “one of the least integrated regions of the world”, with a very small share in world economy, the Minister said that the false perceptions that the countries in South Asia have about each other are not too favourable for regional cooperation.

“India’s natural predominance is viewed with concern by some states” lamented the Minister, however, he urged the participants to have note that India is greater “responsibility to improve its relationship with neighbours”. This policy has paid off at the bilateral level and “India’s relationship with some countries has undergone a dramatic transformation” added the minister. “India has always tried to reach out to all its neighbours and engage them through political, economic, defence, and developmental cooperation” and “India has been playing major role in strengthening regional infrastructure and in supporting efforts aimed at human resource development,” the Minister stated.

The Minister expressed hope that “an improvement in India’s bilateral relationships with the countries of the region will have a beneficial impact on the process of regional cooperation”.

Emphasising upon the need for all the states in the region to deal with mutual perceptions while conducting their foreign policies towards each other, the minister highlighted the role that think tanks, civil societies, intelligentsia and media can play. “Institutions like IDSA must strengthen the linkages with their counterparts in the region and develop collaborative research,” he said.

Earlier, in his welcome remarks, Director General, IDSA Dr Arvind Gupta said that there are many reasons why South Asia has been lagging behind in the efforts towards regional cooperation. “One of the reasons is the negative perceptions the countries of the region have about each other.” However, despite this “the region has not remained static. Democracy has taken hold in this part of the world. South Asian countries have also done relatively well economically,” said Dr Gupta.

He expressed hope that the two day conference would prove instrumental in exploring how best can India manage or improve the perceptions among its South Asian neighbours.