ICS Occasional Papers

Chinese Internet companies have bet big on the region through investments and partnerships with Southeast Asian companies in e-commerce, digital finance, gaming, and cloud computing, among other things. This paper presents a number of economic opportunities for the region to leapfrog stages in digital connectivity and technology but also poses political and strategic challenges to ASEAN that need to be acknowledged and addressed sooner rather than later

The pace at which economic partnerships have developed between countries in the ASEAN region and their counterparts in Africa in the past few decades have led to deliberations regarding the possibilities of an ASEAN-Africa model of cooperation. In addition to becoming one of the favoured destinations for FDI outflows from ASEAN, African countries have also become vital trading partners. While most of the initial investments were focused on the energy sector, with time the portfolios have steadily diversified into financial services, telecommunications, shipping, water sanitation and infrastructure among others.

In many respects China’s Maritime Silk Road and Indonesia’s Global Maritime Fulcrum complement each other. Both are also an attempt to revive what each perceives as their glorious maritime past. The Chinese have been quick to seek convergence with the Indonesians on the two plans. There are, nevertheless, several areas where the two sides are at odds including not least about territorial limits in the South China Sea. There have been confrontations between fishing and coast guard ships of the two sides and these incidents underline the difficulties of cooperation.

The recent developments in the Southeast Asian region, namely the establishment of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Economic Community and the first ever ASEAN-US Leaders Summit in United States (US) have been the focus of attention in the international forum. The study of the contest for influence in the region has become more significant in the light of its ever increasing economic significance and the due to its geopolitics.

In recent years, economic corridors have emerged as an important tool of regional cooperation and development in a globalised world.

The major strategic obstacle in formulating a bi-lateral (or multi-lateral) cooperation agenda on Afghanistan is the view that Beijing’s presence and interests in the Middle East outweigh their interests in Central Asia including, Afghanistan.

India and China are arguably set to change the order of multilateral governance. Given their increasing economic size and population, the influence of China and India in global affairs is increasing.

Several infrastructure projects undertaken by New Delhi in Arunachal Pradesh have picked up pace in the past decade; these have been seen as a concerted effort to strengthen the war preparedness of the armed forces given that China contests India‘s claim

The study of India-China economic relations and an assessment of the countries’ future ties come with the additional task of engaging with a historicity marked both by centuries of peaceful coexistence and interchange of ideas, and war

The signing of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) by China and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries in November 2002 at Phnom Penh, Cambodia was a significant contribution to the cooperative arc

There is considerable analytical work comparing the economic performance of China and India to understand the growth processes in these economies.

Throughout much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the British colonial Government of India was closely involved with affairs pertaining to Britain’s engagement with China.