Revision summary
Look East (1991) reopened trade and diplomacy with ASEAN after the Cold War. Act East (2014) added security, connectivity, and the north-east as a land bridge. India sits in ASEAN-centred forums: Dialogue Partnership, EAS, and ADMM Plus. Kaladan, the IMT Highway, and ASEAN–India trade agreements are the main economic tools. Indo-Pacific language is meant to supplement ASEAN centrality, not replace it.
Model answer
Introduction
South-East Asia is the ASEAN belt from Myanmar to Indonesia on India’s eastern flank. Regional policy is the shift from Look East (1991) to Act East (2014), plus connectivity, trade, and Indo-Pacific security habits.
Body
From Look East to Act East
- Look East, launched after the 1991 economic reforms, sought trade, investment, and a diplomatic return to ASEAN after the Cold War.
- Act East, stated at the 2014 ASEAN–India Summit in Myanmar, added security, connectivity, and the north-eastern States as a land bridge, so policy is no longer only commerce with Singapore and Bangkok.
- India is an ASEAN Dialogue Partner, a Strategic Partner, and a member of the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus, which is the institutional core of the regional policy.
Economic and connectivity instruments
- The ASEAN–India Trade in Goods Agreement and the wider FTA architecture (under review as AITIGA) are the commercial spine, even though the deficit with ASEAN remains a political complaint in India.
- Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project and the India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway are meant to join the north-east to mainland ASEAN.
Security and the Indo-Pacific overlay
- Freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, defence logistics with Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative sit on Act East without asking ASEAN to join a military bloc.
- India repeats ASEAN centrality so that Quad and other minilaterals are read as supplements, not replacements.
Limits
- Project delay on Kaladan and the Trilateral Highway, and a goods deficit, blunt the economic story.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD LE[Look East 1991] --> AE[Act East 2014] AE --> ASEAN[ASEAN EAS ADMM Plus] AE --> T[AITIGA trade] AE --> K[Kaladan and IMT Highway] AE --> IP[Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative] ASEAN --> R[Regional policy outcomes] T --> R K --> R IP --> R
Conclusion
- India’s regional policy towards South-East Asia is Act East built on Look East: ASEAN-centred institutions, trade agreements, land-and-sea connectivity, and an Indo-Pacific security overlay that still recites ASEAN centrality. It is a neighbourhood policy of the east, not a distant extra-regional hobby.
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Is Act East only about China?
No. It is primarily an ASEAN and connectivity policy. The China factor is real in the Indo-Pacific overlay, but the core partners are South-East Asian states.
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Does India have a free-trade agreement with ASEAN?
Yes, a trade-in-goods agreement (and related services and investment tracks) often discussed as the ASEAN–India FTA, currently under review as AITIGA.
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