Shivshankar Menon Calls for Security Architecture with Asian Characteristics

February 21, 2014

New Delhi: National Security Advisor, Shri Shivshankar Menon today called for a “security architecture with Asian characteristics”, that would be the “political-military equivalent of the open interlinked economic order that has so benefitted the region, taking into account the primarily maritime nature of many regional security issues and disputes amenable to collective solutions”. Shri Menon was speaking at the concluding day of the 16th Asian Security Conference at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) on February 21, 2014.

Shri Menon added that to build the order, the emphasis should be on the security essentials that made the region’s phenomenal economic growth possible. “The commons, on the high seas, in air space and in cyber space should be safe and open to all lawful civilian users. That is why maritime security and freedom of navigation is so important and should be one of the first orders of business”, he insisted.

The NSA also described “openness about doctrines and defence, and increased military contacts” as prerequisites to take some of the edge off uncertainty although confidence building can only hold the ring until the hard work of solving disputes and agreeing a rule based legal order is done.

Highlighting the reasons for escalating uncertainty in the Asia-Pacific, the NSA said that one reason could be that the Asia-Pacific is “a crowded geopolitical space, with the active involvement in its affairs of several established and of rising or re-emerging powers, some external and some intrinsic to the region.” The simultaneous emergence of several powers has also built pressure for a new equilibrium and balance.

“Rapid economic growth in the last few decades” that has given several states in the region the means to militarily strengthen themselves is another factor, insisted Shri Menon, adding that the “Asia-Pacific as a whole is witnessing the greatest peacetime arms build up in its history, possibly in world history.”

He termed “Technology and politics” as other factors that have eliminated distance and separation between powers. “We now speak of the Asia-Pacific as a geopolitical unit, and not of East Asia, South East Asia and South Asia separately.”

Further, the removal of “ideological restraints on the use of force or the threat of its use, even though it is a recent phenomenon” has also added to growing uncertainty in the region, stated the NSA. The absence of ideology has resulted in renewed internal debates and political arguments in several major Asia-Pacific countries.

Later, during a Panel Discussion on India’s response, issues of Asia-Pacific as a zone of conflict or cooperation in future were discussed.

India was largely hailed for playing a stabilizing role in Asia, however, the panellists felt that the country needed significant domestic and economic reforms and governance.

India was urged to identify priorities clearly, make clear ideological map and take initiative, in both near/extended neighbourhood. The panellists urged India to try and consolidate position in Bay of Bengal and to explore agreements and options with South East Asia, Iran and Afghanistan. They insisted that India should be more assertive, active in shaping regional order, take initiative in cyber and water where it has strength. Asia’s rise is both India and China’s rise.