Page 104 - AEI Insights 2018 Vol 4 Issue 1

Mishra, 2018

decade later, when the Phase II of Look East policy begun, the situation in India’s Northeastern
states had improved. Initiatives such as Kaladan Multimodal project, India-Myanmar- Thailand
trilateral highway were conceptualized and launched at that time. However, the region, which
was marred by decades of insurgency and neglect, could not get back on the track in such a
short time. It would be an exaggeration to state that the level of physical, digital and economic
connectivity in the Northeastern states of India is the same as mainstream India. Over the past
twenty-five years, however, the situation has improved, just as the rest of India and the level
of economic growth and development of other states has also improved since 1991.

Nevertheless, a lot needs to be done to bring the Northeastern states of India to the level where
they could attempt to link with countries of the ASEAN region. Here, an element of logical
fallacy catches the analysts who wish to compare Look East with the Act East policy. The
fundamental difference on this count is that Look East is assessed for what it delivered over a
period of twenty-two years, within its limited role in shaping domestic agenda in the age of
coalition governments.

The Act East however, is more akin to a promissory note, the real action of which is yet to be
seen. Nevertheless, on the basis of initial trends it can be said that Northeastern states are
attracting more attention of the central government of India than ever before, regardless of
reasons electoral or developmental. “The North East of India has been a priority in the Act East
Policy. AEP provides an interface between North East India including the state of Arunachal
Pradesh and the ASEAN region” (Press Information Bureau, 2015).

The ASEAN-India plan of action, 2016-2020, which is the third plan of action in the series,
jointly designed lists out a clear roadmap for India and ASEAN to work together. Through
mechanisms such as ASEAN-India Fund, ASEAN-India Science & Technology Fund,
ASEAN-India Green Fund, ASEAN-India Project Development Fund, India has been working
on some of these ideas, while some still need to be implemented comprehensively.

While India and ASEAN have certainly benefitted from each other in the past twenty-five
years, they are yet to become the Central pillars in shaping each other’s future. The time has
come to earnestly strive for achieving long-term tangibles gains.

References

Acharya, A. (2017) East of India, South of China Sino-Indian Encounters in Southeast Asia,
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2017.

ASEAN (2002), “Text of Singapore Lecture in 2002”. Retrieved from
http://www.asean.org/2835.htm. [Accessed on 10 December, 2017].

ASEAN (2017), “History: The Founding of ASEAN”, Retrieved from
http://asean.org/asean/about-asean/history/. [Accessed on 12 December, 2017].
ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (2017), “About the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting
(ADMM-Plus)”, ADMM¸ February 6, 2017, Retrieved from

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