Towards Greater Cooperation: Re-Energizing India’s Act East Policy for Southeast Asia

Abstract

The paper aims to illustrate the development of India’s Look East policy into Act East Policy, Act East and North Eastern Regions, the role of China in the region and the challenges and prospects. Regional cooperation was built in south-east Asia by “ASEAN WAY” based on consultation and consensual decision making and flexibility rather than starting with ambitious political commitments. After Indian independence, Jawaharlal Nehru remarked that “India was the gateway to both west and south East Asia and therefore inevitably came into the picture.” The independence and security of South East Asia served to strengthen India’s own independence and security and any serious setbacks there, constituted a political threat to India too. But, the prominence to this region in India’s international relations was given a long back later. The “Look East policy” of India was launched by former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao in 1991. This was mainly exercised through India-ASEAN ties. Later in 2014, prime minister Narendra Modi, transformed “Look East into Act East policy”. Terming Look East into Act East, the main aims of this policy was to revive political ties, strengthen economic linkages, and forge regional security and ensure strategic cooperation with South East Asia, for which the North Eastern region serves as the gateway. This foreign policy has given geographic proximity, socio-cultural and historical ties with South Eastern countries. This policy is described as a comprehensive and multi–pronged effort to forge strategic alliances with several individual nations and foster constructive ties with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). How is geopolitically significant in Southeast Asia to India's foreign policy? What are the geopolitical factors behind the genesis and transformation of the Look East Policy into the Act East Policy? How well is China pursuing its interests in Southeast Asia? How the changing power politics affect the relations between these nations?  These are some of the questions that I will seek to answer through this paper.