In the year 1991 when the decades-old Cold War and thereby the erstwhile USSR ceased to exist, India happened to make considerable changes in its foreign policy and international stance to be able to successfully adjust itself within the rapidly evolving power equations, most importantly in Asia.
Owing to the massive Gulf War in 1990-91, the Indian economy suffered a dent due to the spike in imported oil prices. Moreover, the collapse of the Soviet Union created a diplomatic void for India, thus establishing close relations with the south-east Asian countries appeared to be the most viable option to India, especially when its immediate neighbours did not hold the said potential.
Among all the landmark and revolutionary steps taken by the Indian government in the early 1990s, the inception of the Look East Policy in the year 1991 under P.V. Narsimha Rao’s government, emerged as a major initiative through which India expressed its lucid intent to establish robust relations with the ASEAN countries. This also counted as a significant step especially when China was far ahead of its fellow Asian nations and suspicion filled in the air, regarding its hegemonic operations within the Asia-Pacific region.
Hitherto, India’s relations with the south-east Asian countries stemmed through a shared historical sense but there was no role of strategy, plan, economy, trade, and diplomacy. India’s ‘Look East policy is a diplomatic initiative to promote economic, strategic, and cultural relations with the vast Asia-Pacific region at various levels. Look East Policy, in the year 2014 underwent a little up-gradation under the aegis of the new BJP government and is now known by the name ‘Act East Policy’ portraying its true objective with much more gravitas.
While the Look East policy focused on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries and allied economic integration, Act East Policy additionally focused on collective Security cooperation. PM Narendra Modi essentially gave 4C’s as the core of the Act East Policy namely, Culture, Commerce, Connectivity, and Capacity Building.
But it would be entirely incorrect to say that the Indo-Pacific power dynamics have remained constant since the inception of the Look East Policy. With China’s wide-ranging powers and proximity naturally inhibiting a sense of fear among the south-east Asian nations, the additional disturbance emerging from China-US political confrontation in the region makes it hard for the ASEAN to withhold its integral coherence today. Another challenge that today surmounts the Act East Policy is India’s Quad membership, which is viewed as a threat to ASEAN’s sovereignty.
Thus it becomes all the more crucial for India to explain its vision of the Indo-Pacific, its ulterior objective of transparent bilateral cooperation, and reassurance of its Quad membership to the ASEAN countries to set the path right for its elaborate policy.
Another step that generates a potential suspicion among the ASEAN nations with regards to India’s honest intentions is Delhi’s withdrawal from the region-wide free trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in 2019, which is largely seen as a stair taken in the view of realizing ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.
It seems as if New Delhi is not realizing the degrading Indian image among Southeast Asia when it comes to expressing the expected conviction. India’s scattered stance and fairly disorganized foreign policy today pose a great threat over its potential Act East Policy, which if India truly wants, would be enough to tackle the Chinese hegemony over Asia, and would result in a power-balanced Indo-Pacific pantheon.
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