India-Asean Strategic Partnership
As part of its “Look East” policy, India has been increasing strategic ties with countries such as Singapore, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.
The two-day summit beginning on Thursday is expected to adopt the 'ASEAN-India Vision Statement 2020', which will also commit both sides to great security cooperation.
According to experts, "Some countries in ASEAN will be looking to India for support on the South China sea. Particularly, they would like India to emphasise that it considers freedom of navigation as a fundamental interest in the South China sea. They will be looking to India to possibly for some capacity-building support, either training or military equipment."
Last week when external affairs minister Salman Khurshid visited Myanmar, India is proposed deeper defense ties with Myanmar after visits by high-ranking military officials.
In a bid to emphasize its strategic reliability Khurshid emphasized the benefits of bilateral defense cooperation, noting that India's army, navy and air forces service chiefs have all recently visited Myanmar and defence minister AK Antony is to visit Myanmar in January and President Thein Sein of that country is here in New Delhi for the India-ASEAN summit.
Myanmar currently imports its weaponry. Earlier this month, the Swedish Agency for Non-Proliferation and Export Controls reported that Myanmar has used M-3 Carl Gustav anti-tank weapons, manufactured by Saab Bofors Dynamics, part of the Saab group and one of the world's top 30 producers of armaments, in its battles against Kachin guerrillas, who provided the physical evidence of the weaponry's deployment.
But India's "Look East" policy and
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