India's Eastward Engagement: From Antiquity to Act East Policy presents India's engagement with its extended eastern neighbours from ancient times to the present. It argues that this engagement has been long rooted in India's geographical location, its civilizational evolution and historical transformations. The book critically examines all the important phases--Nehru and Post-Nehru periods, and Look East and Act East policies. It exposes the widely entertained myths about India's eastward engagement and also underlines the prospective directions in which the Act East Policy may unfold in the years to come.

This volume captures the success of India’s Look East Policy (LEP) in promoting economic engagement with neighbouring countries in Asia and simultaneously its limitations in propelling growth in the bordering North Eastern Region — India’s bridge head to South East Asia. It analyses the instrumental role of LEP in bringing a tectonic shift in India’s foreign trade by redirecting the focus from the West to the East, thus leading to a fundamental change in the nature of India’s economic interdependence. Besides discussing foreign trade, it expounds as to how LEP made India play an important role in the emerging Asian security architecture and liberated Indian foreign policy from being centred on South Asia. The essays also enumerate the reasons for LEP’s failure in the North Eastern Region and chart out actionable programmes for course correction that might be factored into its latest edition — the Act East Policy. This book will interest scholars and researchers of international relations, international trade and economics, politics, and particularly those concerned with Northeast India.

This book provides a detailed account of the evolution of India’s Look and Act East Policy, addressing the nuances of the policy and its efficacy for the Northeast Region. The Northeastern India as a region is landlocked, sharing most of its boundary with neighbouring countries of South and South East Asia. It empirically explores the progress in and prospects for trade, investment and connectivity between Northeast India and Southeast Asian countries. Further, it discusses a range of regional and sub-regional multilateral initiatives – e.g. the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM), and Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) – that could potentially strengthen the cooperation between Northeast India and neighboring regions in the social, cultural and economic spheres.

Offers fresh insight on issues of common concern, on economic benefits, maritime cooperation and other important topics within the broad framework of Indo-Pacific. These academic reflections provide a better understanding of the region and will help bridge the gaps in India's foreign policy towards the countries of Southeast Asia and South Pacific.

Charts India's uneasy relationship with the PRC since the 1962 War and New Delhi's burgeoning strategic realignment.

This book offers an understanding of the expectations and challenges of Northeast India in the context of India's Act East policy. It critically examines how the policy is being pursued by the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government and analyses its relevance from local perspectives. Contributors to the book provide an examination of the differences between Look East and Act East policy and explanations of the expectations of India's neighboring countries, particularly Myanmar, towards Northeast India. They ask the following questions: a) What is to be done to integrate India’s Northeast region meaningfully into the Act East policy? What is the motive of linking this policy with these states? How is this policy received by the local communities? b) What are the challenges of the Northeast region? What are their needs and priorities? How can these states showcase their potentials to Southeast Asia and East Asia? c) What is the significance of the changes from Look to Act East Policy? Has the regime change affected the continuity in the policy? What are the short- and long-term goals? d) What are the expectations of Southeast Asia and East Asia? By addressing these questions, they bridge the knowledge gaps that exist in the understating of the the Northeast region of India vis-à-vis the Act East policy. The first book to combine a balanced view of India's Act East policy and Northeast India, it will be of interest to policy makers and academics in the fields of Development Studies, International Relations, Northeast India and South Asian Politics.