World Scientific Publishing Company Reimagining India-Thailand Relations: A Multilateral And Bilateral Perspective

Review As India, Thailand and ASEAN are moving through future changes and challenges, this volume provides an in-depth and timely analysis and background, from historical, cultural, people-to-people contacts, down to present-day context of their geo-economic and geo-political relationships. By contextualizing truly and interestingly their multilateral and bilateral ties, this innovative, brilliant, and unparalleled 9-chapter work widens a whole, useful, and yet practical, perspective on the India-Thailand and ASEAN relations and should prove to be an invaluable resource and reference to everyone; policymakers, researchers and students, all included, of the region and beyond, for years to come. --Suthipand Chirathivat, Professor Emeritus of Economics and the Executive Director at the ASEAN Studies Center, Chulalongkorn University in ThailandThe deep-rooted bonds of Buddhism, culture and trade between India and Thailand since millennia and now Thailand's joint effort with India and Myanmar for establishing physical connectivity with India's Northeast or developing sub-regionalism through BIMSTEC or Mekong-Ganga Cooperation have played a key role in the evolution of India's Look (now Act) East policy. And yet it is not sufficiently understood or recognized. Dr Reena Marwah's intensive and timely study is therefore welcome even as it helps to fill this long-felt gap. Preservation of ASEAN's unity and centrality are today primary challenges in the Indo-Pacific. At this critical juncture India's active cooperation with Thailand can go a long way in meeting this objective. --Sudhir T Devare, Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India and Director General, Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA)This is a comprehensive book, based on extensive fieldwork over several years, on India-Thailand relations covering political, economic, strategic and cultural aspects of the relationship, and situating it in the larger multilateral context of ASEAN and the new Indo-Pacific strategic construct. It is an excellent book that fills a major gap in our understanding of a close neighbor across the Bay of Bengal with whom India has had long historical and cultural ties and which we are now reaching out to as part of the reorientation of foreign policy in the post-Cold War period. --E Sridharan, Academic Director and Chief Executive of the University of Pennsylvania Institute for the Advanced Study of India (UPIASI) Product Description This book brings into focus India's relations with ASEAN and Thailand in particular. In the 1990s, India revived its relations with Southeast Asia. Yet, in comparison to China, India continued to be a distant neighbour. Hence, India has once again, through its 'Look and Act East' policies become intertwined with its immediate neighbours in the East, especially with Thailand. The objective of the book is to contextualise India's relations and influence in Southeast Asia over a period of nearly two thousand years, through culture and religion. The scope of the book extends beyond bilateral issues to include the multilateral, bringing in issues of trade negotiations under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Indo-Pacific construct. As ASEAN's importance grows in the regional and global landscape, there are ramifications for its relations with its traditional partners. The volatility and suspicion among the major powers, especially USA and China harbour the potential to disunite ASEAN. A rising India seeks a united and strong ASEAN both as a natural partner and in a bid to balance China's growing assertiveness and deep pockets. Based on interviews conducted with experts , diplomats and scholars in the field, this book encompasses a wide range of aspects that pertain to the historical, cultural, economic and strategic international relations of ASEAN and Thailand with India. About the Author Reena Marwah is a permanent faculty member of Jesus and Mary