The end of the Cold War in the early 1990s brought about opportunities as well as challenges to the countries in Southeast Asia. It provided the opportunity to establish a new regional order where the countries in the region could coexist peacefully in spite of different ideologies. It also offered the challenge for the establishment of a new security arrangement in order to manage the extra-regional powers, both the dominant and the rising ones.

The United States, the hegemonic power, had played a significant role during the Cold War in guaranteeing the security of the Southeast Asian region. Japan, the United States’ ally, also contributed to the industrialization and economic development of the region through investment and trade. China was then perceived as a menace as she supported the communist insurgencies, while India was looked at with suspicion because she was close to the Soviet Union and sided with the communist regimes in Indochina.

The Sino-Soviet conflict and the subsequent demise of communism in Eastern Europe as well as in Soviet Union altered the strategic landscape in Southeast Asia. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), formed in 1967 of five Southeast Asian nations, saw the opportunity to enlarge and include the communist neighbours so that ten countries in the region belonged to the same regional organization. ASEAN also realized that it must engage the major powers, all extra-regional ones, including the hegemonic United States, the declining Japan, the rising China and the emerging India, so that the region could be secure, and prosper.

The four major powers — different in size and potentials — could become the four engines of the ASEAN plane. The question is how to manage them so as to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks for ASEAN. This chapter will analyse the roles of two major powers — the rising of China and India, in Southeast Asia. The chapter is divided into two parts, the first will focus on the China-ASEAN relations, the second part on the India-ASEAN relations.

THE ROLE OF CHINA IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Southeast Asia has always been considered strategically and economically important for China.