Indias Look East Policy goo.gl/olt2wt Look East Policy is one of Indias foreign policies. The Look East Policy was initiated by P.V. Narasimharao government in 1991. The aim is to strengthen the cultural, economic, strategic and commercial relationship with the south east Asian countries. Also it has a hidden agenda to become a regional power and to counter the attempts by China to become the leader of south east Asia. Post independent India has been leaning towards the western countries for trade relations mostly due to the colonial influence. Add to it the fact that most south east Asian countries were not much developed during that time. After the 1970s the eastern countries have a giant leap in the developmental activities and India began to rethink its strategy and established a good rapport with its eastern neighbours which resulted in the Look East Policy . The subsequent governments in India by BJP and Congress acknowledged the importance of this policy. After the cold war and the collapse of the Soviet Union who was India’s valued economic and strategic partner, India decided to critically evaluate its foreign policy strategy. A number of free trade agreements with the south east Asian countries has been established including Burma, Srilanka, Thailand etc. Economic and military ties have been made with Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand and Srilanka. Indonesia and Malaysia had started the joint military exercises in 1991. Joint naval exercises with Singapore [SIMBEX] has been conducted since 1993 and India offered the Burmese army military training. India has also set its eyes on the huge reserves of oil and natural gas in Burma, thereby establishing a supplier of clean energy. It has also the added advantage of not being much dependent on the middle east gulf countries for oil and gas. . India has understood the need of good relations with Japan and South Korea. Joint or coordinated naval patrolling, fighting piracy and maritime security threats, air and naval exercises are conducted to boost the relationship. During the early days the relationship with the ASEAN countries were limited to the public sector. Several state funded organizations has benefited from this ties through various projects for building roads, highways, pipelines etc. Now India’s private sector has laid inroads into these south east Asian countries and had made their strong presence known. About three hundred Indian joint ventures are operating in Thailand including 16 joint ventures with Indian equity participation. The Aditya Birla Group is the largest investor from India with three joint ventures. The R. P. Goenka Group has set up an automobile tire unit in Vietnam. Besides ASEAN wanted close ties with India to counterbalance the influence of China. One could say that it is in Indias best interest to lessen the stronghold that China has on these south east Asian countries. China began to develop diplomatic relations with its neighbouring countries including the military juntas who are violently suppressing the pro- democratic movements in Burma. China has strengthened economic and social ties with the neighbours. Although with India’s One China policy [India did not recognize Taiwan as part of China], we have strengthened the ties with Taiwan emphasizing on human rights and democracy. China has been successful in establishing a significant presence in Indias neighbourhood. And India has been reluctant or slow to counter this act. For example the relationship India’s north eastern states has Myanmar could have been more developed as this country can act as a gateway for India to the other east Asian countries. India first opened channels of communication with Myanmar in the 1990s, when it realized that it could not continue to cede such an important space to China. However the implementation of closer ties has been a slow process. India should take advantage of the commonalities it has with Myanmar-the Mughal rule. The scope of tourism is present here and should be taken care of. Also India should be more assertive with China in case of its infrastructure projects in the border. It is naive to consider it just a developmental project. Chinas and Pakistans comradeship has to be taken into account while considering the threat the former possess to India. The relationship between India and the ASEAN countries has not been always warm. The Frienship Treaty India has with the USSR before the cold war resulted in a neglect to the other Asian countries. Indias nuclear test in 1974 were met with suspicion by the south eats Asian countries. The naval capabilities of India and its build-up in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands worried the ASEAN countries. After the collapse of USSR India focused on its diplomatic and multilateral ties with the south east Asian countries. India considered that with closer ties to the ASEAN countries its trade and investment opportunities would increase. At the Fourth ASEAN Summit in Singapore in January 1992, member countries of ASEAN decided to make India a sectoral dialogue partner as far as tourism, commerce, science and technology were concerned. The Indian prime minister visited Indonesia Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia in the first half 1990s accompanied by high level business delegation. The country became became a full dialogue partner in ASEAN in 1995, a member of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum in 1996, and a summit level partner (on par with China, Japan and Korea) in 2002 . India also became a member of the body dealing with security issues of ASEAN, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). India is a member of BIMSTEC along with South Asian countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand which aims at close cooperation among member countries. A lot of factors work in India favour while considering foreign relations with these countries. A large supply of English speaking educated people gives the country an edge over China. Also the population, military strength, industrial bases and cultural relations with most of south east Asian countries provides ample opportunities to India in developing the relations.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 16:43:23 +0000