Distinguish between Look East and Act East policy. India's Act East Policy provides an interface between North East India and the ASEAN region. Discuss.
Look East .vs. Act East
India’s Look East policy initiated in 1991, marked a strategic shift in India’s perspective of the world. In 2014 India’s Act East Policy, became a successor to the Look-East Policy.
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Act East Policy
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Look East Policy
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Act East Policy was launched in 2014
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Look East Policy was launched in 1991
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It was launched by the Current Prime Minister of India – Narendra Modi
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It was launched by former Prime Minister of India – PV Narasimha Rao
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India was in a very favorable position from the perspective of economic might when the Act East Policy was launched in 2014.
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India had a very fragile economy when Look East Policy was launched, due to the 1991 Economic crisis. India was in a transition phase to a liberalized economy.
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Focus is more on boosting economic co-operation, building infrastructure for greater connectivity, importantly strategic & security ties
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Focus more on boosting economic co-operation.
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This was initiated to tackle the changing Geo-political scenario due to dominance by China, in the South China Sea and its increasing influence in the Indian Ocean Region.
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The Indian economy was heavily dependent on the Soviet Union, but the fall of the Soviet Bloc propelled India to look at alternative regions, i.e. South East Asia to sustain the economy. India realized there was immense scope for growth in the region, as Japan and China had already become major economic players in the region.
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Act East Policy has a greater strategic and political angle to the cooperation. Relationships with Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia have been upgraded to a strategic partnership to counter the dominance of China in the entire region.
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The focus was more on boosting trade and investment relations with Southeast Asian countries. There was not much focus on Quad – India, USA, Japan, and Australia or up-gradation to the strategic partnership with other nations in the region.
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Focusing more on historical, cultural, linguistic, and religious ties through more people-to-people exchanges.
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Historical ties between India and ASEAN were not given much prominence and therefore not capitalized in its Look East Policy.
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Heavy focus is being given to the development of the North East region. India believes that the North East region of India can be the gateway to East Asia and Southeast Asia. Japan is helping India by providing funds for many infrastructure projects.
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North East of India was neglected in its plans of forging deeper ties with East Asia.
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India is collaborating with Japan in developing infrastructure in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Bangladesh
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India did not focus on developing infrastructure in other countries.
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Greater focus on defense cooperation
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Not much focus on defense cooperation
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Opportunities for North east India from India’s Act East policy
- The region will directly benefit from the economic projects with ASEAN like Kaladan multi modal project and Free trade agreement with ASEAN.
- Infrastructure connectivity projects like Urja Ganga project will connect North east Grid with National Grid. National waterway 2 will boost affordable intra-region connectivity.
- The ASEAN region and Japan can act as a ready market for industries in the North east region.
- The ancient cultural connectivity between North east region and ASEAN will act a key for people to people connectivity and promote regional peace and inter-government relationship.
- Further, India has historical connectivity with Eastern region through spread of Buddhist values in South East Asia, Japan and China.
- The eastern region is significant in the changing geopolitical scenario in which significance of Indo-Pacific is growing. North east is the key to connect with the region in the changing scenario.
- The border dispute as considered by China in the North east region required better cooperation with other regional countries and also boosting infrastructure in the region.
- Multiple means of Institutional framework are promoting India’s cooperation with the region which acts as a bridge among nations.
- India has been cooperating with not only democracies but also Military rule in Myanmar reflects flexibility in partnership.
- India has been able to do surgical strikes in Myanmar against anti India groups due to smooth cooperation between the two.
Impediments for North East in harnessing opportunities
While the policy is well intentioned, there are certain challenges that need to be tackled at domestic as well as international levels to make it a success. Some of the impediments are-
- Political
- Chinese intervention in the region as the country considers some areas as part of China.
- China has gained round among ethnic Chinese across the region. It is also assumed that certain anti- India groups has linkages with groups in Myanmar and China
- Naga peace talks have not been successful and people protest against AFSPA regularly.
- Economic
- First, unstable political environment in the region pushes away economic investments in the region from the eastern partners.
- Second, the pandemic has further tightened the domestic spending in the region.
- Others
- China views India as a rival in the Indo pacific region and it pushing infrastructure connectivity in border areas at a faster pace. Secondly, deep pockets of China make it easy to connect the region through its projects like Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
- Inadequate connectivity of the region with the mainstream.
Looking forward
While there are a lot of domestic and regional challenges, ‘Act East policy’ act as a catalyst to connect the North eastern India with the ASEAN and beyond. Some more steps can be taken in this direction-
- Moving along the policy of Non-aligned movement, India can chalk out its own way in connecting with the region that can boost industrial growth in the region.
- Highlighting the cultural ties along the Buddhism and Hinduism, and the current connection through Indian diaspora, India can have better people to people contacts than China in the region.
- Student exchanges with partner countries mainly from the North east, can promote better cooperation and remittances in the region.
- Lastly, investing in domestic political issues and resolving anti India sentiments can lure sustainable political investments in the region.
North east region with its ethnic, cultural and border connections can act as a gateway to the eastern region and make ‘Act East policy’ a success.
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