New Delhi: India’s presence is making the dilemma of choosing between the United States and China more manageable for ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member countries by expanding the range of available options, a report has detailed.
“For ASEAN, the presence of a partner like India does not resolve its central dilemma, but it does make that dilemma more manageable. By expanding the range of available options, India helps reduce the pressure to choose between the United States and China,” former Indian diplomat Raghu Gururaj wrote in Indian Narrative.
India’s engagement, he said, increasingly aligns with ASEAN’s preference for inclusive and non-bloc regional architectures.
India has consistently emphasised ASEAN centrality within the Indo-Pacific, unlike alliance-driven approaches. It also continues to participate actively in the East Asia Summit, ASEAN Regional Forum, and ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus.
“This matters because ASEAN’s strategic culture prioritises equilibrium, consultation, and multi-alignment over rigid geopolitical camps. India’s relatively non-prescriptive approach, therefore, allows it to engage Southeast Asia without generating the dilemmas often associated with major-power competition,” Gururaj emphasised.
A significant evolution in India’s external security posture marked by the export of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles to the Philippines.
Reports saying Vietnam has concluded a similar agreement, and Indonesia is approaching the final stages of negotiations, show the emergence of India as a “credible defence supplier within Southeast Asia.”
Beyond defence, India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) offers a sovereignty-sensitive digital alternative built around interoperability, lower implementation costs and state ownership, which neither China nor the United States can fully replicate, as many states are wary of both Chinese platform dependency and Western big-tech dominance.
The joint statement issued during the 21st ASEAN-India Summit in October 2024 acknowledged “the opportunities for collaboration, with the mutual consent of ASEAN Member States and India, to utilise various kinds of platforms to promote DPI development across the region.”
“India does not seek to dominate or define the region’s trajectory. Instead, it operates as a complementary force, expanding options and reducing over-dependence on any single partner. In a system defined by hedging, such a role is inherently valuable,” Ambassador Gururaj wrote in India Narrative.
(IANS)
