What are the main Objectives of Look East Policy?

The Look East Policy has objectives that are worth highlighting are mentioned below;

1. Economic Cooperation: One of the goals is to strengthen existing ties and promote trade, between nations. Additionally it aims to enhance investments with countries.

2. Diplomatic Relations : The policy focuses on intensifying relations and forming alliances with countries in the Southeast Asian region mentioned earlier.

3. Exchanges : Another objective is to facilitate interactions and promote people to people relations aiming to improve mutual awareness and goodwill.

4. Strategic Alliances : The policy seeks to enhance unions for benefit and regional stability with a particular emphasis, on Southeast Asian countries.

Background

Ever since the Sino- Indian War of 1962, China and India have been strategic challengers in South and East Asia. China has cultivated close marketable and military relations with India’s neighbour Pakistan and contended for influence in Nepal and Bangladesh. After Deng Xiaoping’s rise to power in China in 1979 and the posterior Chinese profitable reform, China began reducing pitfalls of expansionism and in turn cultivated expansive trade and profitable relations with Asian nations. China came the closest mate and supporter of the military galère of Burma, which had been ostracised from the transnational community following the violent repression ofpro-democracy conditioning in 1988. In discrepancy, during the Cold War, India had a fairly reluctant relationship with numerous countries in Southeast Asia as similar politic relations were given fairly low precedence.

India’s” Look East” policy was developed and legislated during the governments of high ministers Narasimha Rao( 1991 to 1996) and Atal Bihari Vajpayee( 1998 to 2004). Along with profitable liberalisation and moving down from Cold War-period programs and conditioning, India’s strategy has concentrated on forging close profitable and marketable ties, adding strategic and security cooperation and the emphasis of major artistic and ideological links. India sought to produce and expand indigenous requests for trade, investments and artificial development. It also began strategic and military cooperation with nations concerned by the expansion of China’s profitable and strategic influence.

The Look East Policy launched by the Government of India in 1991 and led by the former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao had a clear objective to develop economic, political, and security cooperation amongst the countries belonging to Southeast Asia.

The Look East Policy led to a prudent shift in India’s reputation concerning the entire World’s perspective. Further improvements regarding this act were made by successive administrations that included Atal Bihari Vajpayee whose tenure was from 1998–2004 and Manmohan Singh whose tenure was from 2004–2014.