India, Southest Asia and the United states : New opportunities and prospects for cooperation

Part 1 : Economic issues.

The first half of the 1990s witnessed a number of radical changes in India's economic policy marked by an unprecedented degree of liberalisation'. India embarked on its path of economic reforms in 1991 and now, five years later, the reforms are on course. India has achieved substantial success and is well on its way to become a market oriented economy with a respectable growth rate; and simultaneously plans to pursue its commitments toward achieving the goal of reducing poverty and raising the quality of life of its people. Interestingly, the onset of this process in India coincided with certain fundamental changes in world affairs which profoundly altered political and economic realities in societies across the globe. The end of the Cold War, disintegration of the former Soviet Union; dilution of the orthodox tenets of Marxism Leninism by Communist governments; intensification of the process of democratisation in the developing societies; and an unprecedented acceleration in the process of global economic interaction, interdependence and integration were some of the dramatic changes of far-reaching consequence. Though these events and processes were accompanied by political and social turmoil in some societies, they have certainly thrown open tremendous opportunities for countries around the world.

For India, striving to become an economic force, it meant defining its economic, political and strategic objectives in the light of new circumstances. It was an opportune moment for India to shed its political and economic inhibitions of the Cold War years and engage in creating an open. and viable economy; and open up and reach out to regions which had remained inaccessible due to ideological commitments and strategies of the past.

The change in the global scenario, as anticipated, has enlarged mutually beneficial areas of India-US interaction and cooperation. Given the political and economic importance of the US in the post-Cold War era, currently India and the US are engaged in a more meaningful and fruitful way than in the past. Today, the U.S. views India with considerable interest, ás a big emerging market of great potential for its own products and services. As the world's two largest democracies, smooth and steady relations between India and the United States will continue to be of great significance to both the countries.