Look East and Act East policy

Look east and act east policy

 Look East Policy? How is it different from the Act East Policy?

The Look East Policy of India was launched by the former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao in 1991 aims to cultivate economic and strategic relations with the South East Asian nations in order to secure India’s position as a regional power. The Look East policy can mainly be implemented by using the border of the North Eastern states of India.  The main focus of this policy was to shift the country's trading focus from the west and neighbors to the booming S.E. Asian countries.  This policy continues till the formation of NDA government in 2014

The policy had three broad dimensions:

1. Efforts to develop broad economic and strategic relations with ASEAN as an emerging group of nations.
2. Making sub-regional initiatives like BIMSTEC or MEKONG-GANGA Cooperation for developing close ties with countries at sub-regional level.
3. Consolidating bilateral relationship with the non-ASEAN countries of this region, particularly Japan, South Korea, and Australia.

Act East Policy

The new NDA government in the centre upgraded “Look East Policy” as the “Act East Policy” at the East Asia Summit held in Myanmar in November 2014. It aims at the effective implementation of the Look East policy by developing better relations with the South East Asian nations through bilateral talks, trade and economic ties.

The Objective of ''Act East Policy”

1. Promote economic cooperation, cultural ties and develop strategic relationship with countries in the Asia-Pacific region through continuous engagement at regional, bilateral and multilateral levels.

2. To increase the interaction of the North-Eastern Indian states with other neighboring countries.

3. To find out the alternatives of the traditional business partners like; more focus on the Pacific countries in addition to the South East Asian countries.

4. To curb the increasing impact of China in the ASEAN region.

5. Experts say that under the “Act East Policy” the government is relying on the 3 C's (Culture, Connectivity and Commerce) to develop better relations with ASEAN nations.

In order to ensure the success of the policy, NDA government is putting steady efforts to develop and strengthen connectivity of Northeast Indian states with the ASEAN region through people-to-people contacts, trade, culture and physical infrastructure (airport, road, power, telecommunication etc.). Some of the major projects include Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project, the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway Project, Border Haats and Rhi-Tiddim Road Project, etc.

To harness the benefits of the “Act East Policy”, India has upgraded its relations to strategic partnership with JAPAN, Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Republic of Korea (ROK) and forged close ties with all countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

So it can be concluding as  “Act East Policy” is a step ahead of “Look East Policy” of India.