The Prime Minister of India is on a visit to Indonesia on 6 and 7 September. He has reached there to attend the 20th ASEAN Summit being held in Jakarta, Indonesia. The G-20 conference is going to be held in India only one day after this summit i.e. on 9th and 10th September. Heads of 20 countries will participate in this conference.
The G20 Summit is also special for India because this time this conference is going to be held in India and India is also presiding over it. In such a situation, despite being so busy, India has done this by going to Indonesia with the PM that it is only with the ASEAN countries.
One of the reasons for its participation in this summit is that India has signed Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with ASEAN countries only last year.
Indonesia seeks India’s support
The relationship between Indonesia and India is not an old one. Prime Minister today Narendra Modi has reached the ASEAN Summit in the same Indonesia where in the year 1965 the Indian Embassy used to be attacked. The mob that attacked the embassy was called ‘Crush India’ slogans.
At that time, one of the reasons for attacking the Embassy of India was also that from 1963 to 1966 there was a border dispute between Indonesia and Malaysia and India was supporting Malaysia in this war. After this, Indonesia got the support of China in this war.
It has been more than 50 years since this incident. Global politics has completely changed in these years. There was a time when China was supporting Indonesia, but now Indonesia wants India’s support to avoid falling into China’s trap.
China has established its dominance in the South China Sea
Actually, China has established its dominance in the South China Sea and 5 out of 10 ASEAN countries have objections to this act of China. Those five countries are Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and China. Now these five countries need weapons to challenge China.
According to the information received from the Stockholm International Peace Research, according to the report of the year 2023, the military expenditure of South East Asian countries has doubled in the last two decades. In the year 2000, these countries were spending Rs 1.67 thousand crores on their security, which has increased to Rs 3.57 thousand crores in 2021.
Why is India helping ASEAN countries?
The first advantage is that by giving arms to ASEAN countries, India wants to divert China’s attention from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and the second advantage is that by helping ASEAN countries, India can surround China in its own territory.
According to information received from India’s BrahMos Aerospace Company in March 2023, India is ready to give supersonic missiles to Indonesia. Preliminary talks have been held between the two countries for a deal worth Rs 16,000 crore regarding this weapon.
On the other hand, Philippines has also signed a deal worth Rs 31,000 crore with India for arms.
Tejas weapon can be discussed