Look East Policy

What It Is

India's Look East Policy was launched by Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao in 1991 alongside India's economic liberalization. It marked a strategic reorientation after Cold War-era preoccupation with non-alignment and Pakistan, signaling that India would deliberately deepen economic and strategic engagement with Southeast and East Asia.

The timing was not accidental. The 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union ended the Cold War framework that had shaped Indian foreign policy for decades; the 1991 balance-of-payments crisis forced economic liberalization; and the rise of East Asian developmental states demonstrated that the region was where the future of global economic growth lay. Look East was India's attempt to be part of that future.

Phase One (1991–2003): Economic Integration with ASEAN

The first phase focused on economic integration with ASEAN. Key milestones:

• India became a sectoral dialogue partner of ASEAN in 1992.
• Full dialogue partnership followed in 1995.
• India became a member of ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1996.
• ASEAN-India Summits began in 2002.
• The ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement was negotiated through this period, concluded in 2009.

The phase-one focus was overwhelmingly economic: increasing trade, investment flows, and economic interdependence with Southeast Asian economies.

Phase Two (2003–2014): Expanded Engagement

The second phase expanded the policy to security cooperation with Japan, Korea, and Australia. Key developments:

• India became an East Asia Summit member in 2005.
• The India-Japan Strategic and Global Partnership was established in 2006.
• India-Korea Strategic Partnership announced in 2010.
• India-Australia security cooperation expanded.
• Naval exercises with regional powers grew in frequency and complexity.

The phase-two expansion reflected India's deepening recognition that economic engagement with Asia would inevitably bring security and strategic dimensions.

Act East: PM Modi's Rebrand

PM Narendra Modi rebranded the policy 'Act East' in 2014, signaling a more proactive posture. The rebrand emphasized:

• Expanded defense ties with Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia.
• Naval exercises: Malabar with US, Japan, Australia; bilateral exercises with most regional powers.
• Active participation in the Quad: the US-Japan-India-Australia strategic grouping.
• Infrastructure connectivity: India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway, Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project.
• Diplomatic activism at the East Asia Summit and other regional forums.

The 'Act' in 'Act East' was a deliberate signal that India would move from observation to engagement.

Why This Matters

The shift reflects India's expanding strategic horizon and recognition that economic and security interests increasingly lie east of South Asia. The shift has structural implications:

• India is now a credible Indo-Pacific power, not a sub-continental power.
• Indian engagement with East Asia has hedged Chinese influence in the region.
• India's defense ties with Japan and Australia have built a strategic partnership network that did not exist a generation ago.
• The Act East framework has supported India's broader 'multi-vector' foreign policy that engages major powers in different combinations.

Connectivity Initiatives

The most concrete dimension of Act East is infrastructure connectivity:

• The India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway is a multi-year project (incomplete) to connect Manipur to Thailand via Myanmar.
• The Kaladan Project would link Kolkata to Mizoram via Sittwe port in Myanmar.
• Indian Northeast development is partly framed as a launching pad for Act East engagement.
• The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) has been revived as an Act East vehicle.

Progress has been mixed; Myanmar's 2021 coup substantially disrupted several connectivity projects.

Common Misconceptions

Look East / Act East is sometimes presented as anti-China. The framing is more nuanced — India seeks engagement with Asia that is not mediated by China and that hedges against Chinese coercion, but does not seek to exclude China from the region.

Another misconception is that Act East is purely a defense policy. It remains substantially economic and diplomatic, with security cooperation as one strand rather than the whole.

Real-World Examples

The 2022 BrahMos missile sale to the Philippines — the first major Indian arms export to a Southeast Asian state — was a landmark Act East achievement. The annual Malabar exercise has expanded from US-India bilateral to a US-India-Japan-Australia quadrilateral, embedding India in Indo-Pacific naval cooperation. The 2024 Vietnam-India defense logistics agreement continued the steady expansion of Indian security ties with Southeast Asian states.