Sources say that India is to strengthen its economic ties with Thailand and the ASEAN region by joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and its participation in the trilateral highway project. Fortunately India could understand the need of the hour, which is joining the RCEP; else it may suffer from trade deficits.
If negotiations work out, RCEP will actually be the biggest multilateral trade pact involving South Korea, Australia, China, and India, New Zealand, Japan and some other ASEAN nations. In the last year, Thailand did a Bt 85.571 billion trade profits with India, including Bt243.477 billion in exports when compared with Bt158 billion of imports.
Moreover, the RCEP represents Act East’ policy with India and thus it is essential that India doesn’t lose out on the opportunity to integrate with the ASEAN region in order to benefit from the multilateral trade. Coming to Thailand, as ASEAN chair, the country has prioritized completion of RCEP negotiations in 2019.
It is likely that the upcoming election in Thailand will have an effect on the country’s foreign affairs, including the RCEP talks while indirectly hastening the progress of the Bay of Bengal initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC, a multinational organization involving Thailand, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka).
Similarly, the talks may reinvigorate initiatives to increase the regional cooperation that goes beyond trade. Also, cooperation in between BIMSTEC countries is expected to strengthen the areas of cross-border environment as well as disaster management.
Additionally, a flagship project between India and ASEAN region, which is the Trilateral highway, is to be completed this year while connecting Moreh in India with Mae Sot in Thailand via Myanmar. All of these give RCEP negotiations a positive prospect to go forward.
