Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s whistle-stop summit sojourn to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta earlier this week was primarily aimed toward deepening India’s engagement with the economically important grouping of 10 Southeast Asian nations. Coming on the eve of India’s internet hosting of the G-20 summit in New Delhi as the present holder of the bloc’s presidency, Mr. Modi’s presence at the annual ASEAN-India summit was a possibility to cement conventional ties with the neighbouring Asian economies at a time of heightened world commerce uncertainty. As the commerce facilitation physique UNCTAD famous in its June 21 ‘Global Trade Update’, the ‘outlook for global trade in the second half of 2023 is pessimistic as negative factors’ together with downgraded world financial forecasts, persistent inflation, monetary vulnerabilities and geopolitical tensions dominate. Against this backdrop, the joint leaders’ assertion on ‘Strengthening Food Security and Nutrition in Response to Crises’ on the ASEAN-India summit underscores the shared vulnerability the area perceives within the face of the continued heightened world meals insecurity, which has been exacerbated by the struggle in Ukraine, local weather change and nationwide coverage responses to inflationary pressures. India’s current curbs on export of rice have triggered some alarm, with the costs of the regional staple reportedly nearing a 15-year excessive. The onset of an El Niño, which is traditionally related to disruptive climate occasions, queers the bottom additional, and ASEAN leaders are justifiably cautious.

Mr. Modi’s pitch, laying stress on the necessity for a rules-based post-COVID-19 world order and a free and open Indo-Pacific, was clearly directed at members among the many Asian bloc who’re more and more disquieted by China’s current muscle flexing and claims over the South China Sea. The Prime Minister’s not-so-veiled message to the ASEAN members is that India is a extra dependable long-term strategic and financial companion, which has no territorial ambitions that might discomfit them. India additionally sought to place itself as a voice to amplify the issues of the Global South, stressing that it could be mutually useful for all. For India, grappling as it’s with an underwhelming free commerce settlement (FTA) with the 10-nation grouping, commerce ties with the jap economies have grown in quantity however asymmetrically, with imports far outpacing the nation’s exports. The widening commerce deficit and the notion that Chinese items are making the most of decrease tariffs underneath the FTA to search out their method into the Indian market, have amongst different components precipitated a assessment of the pact that’s more likely to be accomplished in 2025. In the meantime, India wants to remain carefully engaged with the ASEAN members each as a commerce hedge towards the slowdown in its primary western markets and to focus on its significance as an all-weather ally.