Trace the evolution of India’s relations with South-east Asia bringing out the main features of the relationship

Introduction

India’s relationship with ASEAN has emerged as a key cornerstone of our foreign policy. The relationship has evolved from the ‘Look East Policy’ enunciated in early 1990s which led India to become a Sectoral Partner of ASEAN in 1992, a Dialogue Partner in 1996 and a Summit-level Partner in 2002. The up gradation of this partnership to Strategic Partnership during the celebration of 20th anniversary Commemorative Summit at New Delhi in 2012 was a natural corollary to the growth of India-ASEAN relationship during last two decades.

The India-ASEAN Strategic Partnership acquired a new momentum with the announcement of “Act-East Policy” in the 12th Summit in 2014. It conveyed a clear intent on the part of India to up-scaling its engagement with the ASEAN Member States. The Act-East Policy emphasizes Connectivity, Commerce and Culture as the focus areas of action for a greater ASEAN-India integration.

It takes into account the blueprints of the three pillars of ASEAN community building process, the ASEAN vision document ASEAN 2025-Forging Ahead Together, the ASEAN Master Plan for Connectivity 2025,the ASEAN ICTMaster Plan 2020 and the Initiative for ASEAN Integration Work Plan III.

· Quoted in C. A. Bayly and T. A. Harper, Forgotten Armies (London: Belknap Press, 2006), p. 324.

· Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Armies.

· See Kripa Sridharan, “India–ASEAN Relations: Evolution, Growth and Prospects,” in Chandran Jeshurun, ed., China, India, Japan and the Security of Southeast Asia (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993), p. 118.

· Kripa Sridharan, The ASEAN Region in India's Foreign Policy (Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing Company, 1996), p. 120.

· Sridharan, The ASEAN Region in India's Foreign Policy.

· Chandran Jeshurun, ed., China, India, Japan and the Security of Southeast Asia (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993), p. 123.

· M. M. Kaul, “ASEAN–India Relations during the Cold War’, in Sandy Gordon and Stephen Henningham, eds., India Looks East: An Emerging Power and its Asia-Pacific Neighbours (Canberra: Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence 111, 1995), p. 54.

· Southeast Asia underwent a period of “Indianization,” in which the nations of Southeast Asia were culturally suffused with Indian culture and civilization.

· See Sridharan, The ASEAN Region in India's foreign policy.

· Satu P. Limaye, quoted in Michael Richardson, “ASEAN Nations and India Warm Up,” International Herald Tribune, January 29–30, 1994, as cited by Ishtiaq Hossain, “‘Singapore–India Relations in the Post-Cold War Period,” in M. C. Yong and Bhanoji Rao, eds., Singapore–India Relations: A Primer (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1995), p. 42.

· Kripa Sridharan, “India–ASEAN Relations. Evolution, Growth, Prospects,” in Jeshurun, ed., China, India, Japan and the Security of Southeast Asia, pp. 117–43.

· See Sandy Gordon, “India and Southeast Asia: A Renaissance in Relations?,” in Gordon and Henningham (eds.), India Looks East, pp. 207–29.

· Gordon, “India and Southeast Asia,” p. 212.

· For comments on India's participation, see S. D. Muni, “India's Growing Identity with ASEAN,” Trends, No. 72, August 31–September 1, 1996, published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore.

· Sridharan, The ASEAN Region in India's Foreign Policy, p. 175.

· India Today , October 15, 1996 and January 15, 1997.

· India Today, January 15, 1997.

· Gordon, “India and Southeast Asia,” p. 218.

· For a comment on that, see Valentin Shishlevskiy, “India's Defence Policy,” Asian Defence Journal (Malaysia) Vol. 24, No. 9 (1994), pp. 42–4.

· Muni, “India's Growing Identity with ASEAN,” p. 1.

· Asiaweek, December 20, 1996.

· For a discussion of the complex three-way relations between China, India, and Burma, see Andrew Selth, “The China–Burma–India Triangle,” in Gordon and Henningham, eds., India Looks East, pp. 185–206.

· Figures from Sridharan, The ASEAN Region in India's Foreign Policy, pp. 209– 10.

· Ibid., p. 207.

· G. Shantakumar, “Human Resources Complementarities between Singapore and India: Formulating Strategy for a Win–Win Situation,” in Yong and Rao, eds., Singapore–India Relations, p. 255.

· Shantakumar, “Human Resources Complementarities between Singapore and India,” p. 262.

· Ashok K. Nath, “The Larger Emerging Economies of Asia – Quo Vadis,” Asia 21, January 1997, Singapore, p. 59.

· The Hindu, January 21, 1997.

· See Ishtiaq Hossain, “Singapore–India Relations in the Post-Cold War Period,” in Yong and Rao, eds., Singapore–India Relations, p. 48.

· Keynote Address by Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Global Indian Entrepreneurs Conference on 19 June 1996.

· See for example Mukul G. Asher and Ramkishen S. Rajan, “Singapore–India Economic Relations: Rationale, Trends and Future Directions,” MPP Working Paper Series, Centre for Advanced Studies, National University of Singapore, May 1994.

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