Abstract: India’s policy with Southeast Asia, which took a distinctive shape in the early 1990s in the form of the East policy, has been a multipronged approach encompassing political, strategic and economic aspects. Apart from establishing institutional linkages with ASEAN and strengthening bilateral relations with its member states, especially in the field of defence. India has been an enthusiastic participant and has always shown its support to multilateralism in Asia-Pacific. While these policies have been so far successful, and there is a beginning of a new phase with the ASEAN Plus One Summit meetings understanding the growing importance of India to Southeast Asia and vice versa. The other major aspects is that India has become a vital part of the larger Asia-Pacific strategic landscape which can’t be separated. In the Cold War days most of the then ASEAN countries perceived India to be in the camp of the former Soviet Union. Apart from Vietnam to an extent, there was very little political interaction of consequence except normal and ‘correct’ relations. Strategic links were virtually non-existent and economic bonds were of low importance. Against this background, the progress that India has made in cultivating multifaceted relationships with ASEAN and its member states is remarkable. In any case, it can be said that the Look East policy has played a vital role in enabling India to become one of the major powers of the Asia Pacific. Today no discussion on political or strategic or economic aspect is complete without mentioning India.
Keywords: ASEAN; India cold war; Look East policy; South Asian countries, China.
Title: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF SOUTH ASIAN POLICY AND IT’S IMPACT ON INDIA
Author: Kareena Bhatia Kakkar, Manali Shah, Priti Kumari, Logeshwari.D
International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations
ISSN 2348-7585 (Online)
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