Since 1971 fundamental changes have occurred in the subcontinent with the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation. West Asia too is in a state of turmoil. The tense situation in West Asia and the critical role played by oil in the strategic perceptions of various powers have tended to aggravate further the situation in the region. These various factors have an important bearing on great power behaviour patterns and attitudes towards South and South East Asia.
The interaction of the great powers in the strategic environs problems for both countries. As Non-aligned Nations our efforts ments of Indonesia and India has created a variety of security has been directed towards the attenuation, if not the complete elimination, of the effects of such interaction on our strategic environments. We are only too conscious that we still have a long way to go to attain our objectives. Our respective perceptions towards the great powers and their interaction with our environment derive from our respective historical experience. There is considerable scope for mutual exchange of our experiences and perceptions with a view to improving our understanding of each other's aims and aspirations, on the basis of which we can co-operate in promoting peace and stability in the region to which we both belong.
In India over the last thirty years, we have viewed the development of nuclear energy from an economic and technological perspective. Our experience has in a sense been unique and concerted efforts are being made to distort and misinterpret our policies which are based on sound and objective principles which, I am glad to note, have been warmly endorsed throughout the "third world".
Independent Perceptions
Both Indonesia and India have vital stakes in the current discussions on the Law of the Sea. We share a common concern to avoid exploitation of the resources of the ocean bed by a few technologically advanced nations. India and Indonesia have signed an agreement delimiting their Continental Shelf boundary which, we hope, will serve as a model for many others.
Till recently such dialogues and exchanges of strategic questions had unfortunately been an exclusive Western monopoly. The perceptions of our scholars, journalists and others tended to be influenced largely by the vast quantities of literature produced by western strategic sources. Academicians from the non-aligned world very often met each other in conferences organised under Western auspices. There are very few fields in which our academic dependence has been as great as in the field of strategic studies. Indonesia has developed the concept of national resilience. In India we have a philosophy of self-reliance. Both these approaches require that on strategic and international security issues we should develop our own independent perceptions unfettered by the biased strategic doctrines of western scholars. To some extent this was, in fact, the position in the first decade of nonalignment when both our countries rejected the concept of rigid bipolar world, though our perceptions at that stage were derived more from certain philosophical formulations rather than from a detailed analysis of strategic factors which affected our security.
Today, it is obvious that such an approach is grossly inadequate. It is necessary for us to independently compile relevant factual data, analyse them critically and derive our own conclusions. It is on the basis of these independent conclusions that our own national strategies have to be formulated.