JantanLombok Publish time 24-2-2014 12:22 PM

Poros China - India - Indonesia untuk Orde Asia

Biarkan Asia dikelola oleh Asia sendiri ... tentu saja dengan arahan 3 negara besar asia ini .... {:1_152:}China, India and Indonesia–Building Trust Amidst Hostility
By Vibhanshu Shekher   

Amidstthe prevailing atmospherics of aggression, hostility anduncertainty,rising powers of the Indo-Pacific are also making effortstowardsbuilding trust and exhibiting their willingness to come toterms witheach other’s rise. Three such efforts were made in October2013 byChina, India and Indonesia during the high-level visits ofChinesePresident Xi Jinping to Jakarta, October 3; Indian PrimeMinisterManmohan Singh to Jakarta, October 10-12; and again by PrimeMinisterSingh to Beijing, October 22-24. The significance of thesevisits liesin the introduction of a somewhat calibrated approachtowards dealingwith each other’s rise, strengthening relations asmajor powers, andopening up of new channels of communication in theirtroubled areas ofrelations. No matter how small these efforts forcollaboration are,their significance should not be lost amidst thecacophony of doom andgloom that some reports claim are prevalentthroughout the region.

Theofficial statements from these visits offer a glimpse into howthesethree states are acknowledging the significance of each other intheevolving regional order. Though the United States remains theparamountpower in the region, mutual acknowledgement of each other’sinterestsand stakes between these three second-tier rising powerscould createconditions for stability in an otherwise unstablemultipolarIndo-Pacific. The visits produced commitments in three majorareas ofdiplomacy: assertion of strategic partnerships includingdefensecooperation, deepening of cooperation in economic and othersofter areasof relations, and introduction of Confidence BuildingMeasures (CBMs)to diffuse tension. First, while consolidating theirrelations, theseAsian powers laid out road maps for cementing ties,and acknowledgedeach other’s role and importance in the region. Thefirst signal camefrom Jakarta where Indonesia and China decided toelevate theirbilateral cooperation to the level of a comprehensivestrategicpartnership. While Beijing acknowledged Jakarta as anemerging marketwith global and regional influence, the lattercharacterized theirpartnership as an epochal moment in the history oftheir bilateralrelations. Defense and securitycooperation–specifically in the areas ofmaritime security, militaryexercises, defense industry–figuredprominently in their jointstatement.

India and Indonesia, bereftof any major sore point in their relationsin comparison to eitherSino-Indian or Sino-Indonesian relations,attempted to add moresubstance and speed to their otherwise thin andslow-paced strategicpartnership. The two countries identified fivefocus areas to strengthentheir bilateral ties: strategic engagement,defense and securitycooperation, comprehensive economic partnership,cultural andpeople-to-people linkages, and cooperation in respondingto commonchallenges. The content of their joint statement highlightedthe intentof the two rising powers to go beyond the bilateral contextofcooperation towards a pan-Indo-Pacific orientation. Both the Indian   Ocean and the G-20 were added as important regional and global agendas   for bilateral cooperation.

On the other hand, the Sino-Indianjoint statement, entitled “A Visionfor Future Development ofIndia-China Strategic and CooperativePartnership” aimed to projectbroad-based consensus between the twopowers over issues of regional andglobal concern. The two countriessigned nine agreements/Memorandums ofUnderstanding (MoU) with thetwo-pronged focus of developingconfidence-building measures to addressareas of bilateral dispute anddeepening cooperation in areas ofmutual benefit.

Second,these visits reflected an infusion of substantive economiccooperationinto their partnerships and an emphasis on strengtheningcooperation inother less contentious areas, such as education andculture. In additionto the signing of a currency swap agreement worth$16 billion, Chinaand Indonesia agreed to implement the commitments ofthe China-IndonesiaFive Year Development Program for Trade andEconomic Cooperation toreach a bilateral trade target of $80 billionby 2015. The Chineseleadership tried to allay Indonesian misgivings inthe economic sectorby agreeing to enhance direct investment in theinfrastructure anddevelopment sectors and to promote balanced trade.At the 2013 Balisummit of APEC, both China and Indonesia pushed forgreater economicintegration, better connectivity and greater marketaccess within theregion.

India andIndonesia signed six MoUs, which entailed greatercollaboration betweeninstitutions of the two countries in the areas ofhealth, naturaldisasters, drug-trafficking, intelligence training,and research. In asimilar fashion, the Sino-Indian joint statementfocused on linkages inthe softer areas of cooperation. They signed anMoU on reviving theancient Nalanda University and also agreed tocelebrate the six decadesof the Nehruvian doctrine of Panchsheel–FivePrinciples of PeacefulCoexistence–as a symbol of post-colonialSino-Indian friendship. TheASEAN Regional Comprehensive EconomicPartnership initiative figured forthe first time as a potential agendaof bilateral economic cooperation.Both India and China are not partof the Trans-Pacific Partnershipnegotiations. These agendas ofcooperation reflect on decisions of thetwo countries to widen theaudience and stakeholders of theirrelationship by strengtheningpeople-to-people relations.

Experts on Sino-Indian relations wouldhave found it unpalatable toimagine a few years ago that Myanmar, whichhas remained a source ofSino-Indian rivalries, would figure as aconnecting link in theirefforts towards building ties. This welcometrend was evident from thejoint statement of India and China thatmentioned Myanmar as a likelyparticipant in their celebration of sixdecades of Panchsheel.

Finally,these visits saw attempts to build confidence overlong-standingbilateral disputes by introducing these sensitive issuesinto theofficial agenda of negotiation. Major strides came from themosttroubled equation of this strategic triangle–Sino-Indianrelations. NewDelhi and Beijing signed a border defense cooperationagreement thatunderscored the necessity of maintaining peace along theborder throughinformation sharing and laid out elaborate mechanismsfor both periodicmeetings as well as emergency communications.Moreover, India and China,for the first time, brought trans-borderriver management into theofficial agenda of negotiation with thesigning of an MoU onstrengthening cooperation on trans-border riversand the Chinese consentfor data sharing.

Thepredominant culture of strategic autonomy in India and Indonesiaseemsto be dictating their economically beneficial andtension-reducingexercises of cooperation with China. Jakarta as anautonomous actor,once again, holds the key in this new-evolvingtriangle ofrelationships. Nevertheless, it is yet to be seen whetherthese threepowers are able to shoulder the responsibility of building astableregional order or if they will inevitably push the regiontowardsgreater instability as their individual power and ambitionsgrow.

http://dinmerican.wordpress.com/2014...t-hostility-2/

Pages: [1]
View full version: Poros China - India - Indonesia untuk Orde Asia


ADVERTISEMENT